Hunter x Hime: Kountinued
by Justanimefanfics
Summary: [Sequel to Hunter x Hime] Around two years have passed since the incident with the Chimera ants. "Going on missions just isn't for me." She says this, but when she receives a new offer, she's encouraged to go on one last mission.
1. Aimless

**Note:** This is a sequel to Hunter x Hime. If you haven't read that yet, this story would unfortunately not make much sense so go ahead and read that first (shameless self-plug). If you like to remain in the dark about things and live life on the edge, feel free to skip the prequel and start here. Whatever works for you.

Most characters in this story aren't owned by me, but all OCs were made up using my tiny little brain. Also, since Togashi hasn't written much after the Chimera ant arc, this will not follow the original plot and I will begin to diverge from the original story.

Thank you for your support. I hope you'll enjoy this brand new journey I'll be taking you on.

* * *

 **Chapter One: Aimless**

...

On the outskirts of the city Kioto stands a lonely mountain separating two forests. Deep inside one of them is the side clan of the Inoues; nobles who have been shunned from the main clan. The other forest is closed to the general public, and since the mountain casts a shadow on it, it's known to inhabit some ferocious beasts who can only be tamed by Hunters. This forest is also home to Goddess Shinatsuhiko's shrine, which is known to some as Shinatobe's memorial. The serene mountain is often admired from afar by both locals and tourists alike, yet not many dare to step too close due to the awful rumours that surround both forests. Therefore, hardly anyone is aware of the lone dojo that exists near this mountain. This is where our story begins.

Pulling along her cabin trolly, our young heroine trekked the long journey from the city to the said dojo. As she rolled the trolly along the uneven and rocky path it staggered, threatening to fall over here and there. As it was early morning, the birds chirped and sung their little songs only to be loudly interrupted by the sound made by the wheels of her bag. However, she couldn't hear it as her ears were distracted by the music playing through her earphones. After what seemed like an endless journey, she finally arrived at the set of stairs that led her up to the worn out dojo. She began to carry her bag up.

By the gates outside the dojo, there was a boy in his late teens sweeping the entrance in a very unenthusiastic manner. The boy with freshly-cut strawberry blonde hair yawned occasionally and tried harder at finding opportunities to slack his morning cleaning duties instead of actually doing them. But as boring and uneventful as he thought that morning would be, he finally straightened his crouched back when he saw the girl arrive at the gate through his hazel eyes.

"Koucchi!" He called out to her, who now removed both earphones and wrapped the white wire around her phone before looking up ahead at him. "Welcome back! How was your trip?" If only he was as enthusiastic to clean as he was to greet the youngest member of the dojo.

"Morning Natsu!" Himeko greeted him back, before coming to a halt beside him to continue their conversation. "Looks like you're on morning duty. Again."

"How do you guys always manage to wake up before me?" It almost sounded like a complaint as he was trying to get her so-called secret out of her.

"There is something called an alarm," she responded bluntly, having told him the same answer an infinite number of times now. But then again, back when he shared a room with Toshiro and Haruko he was capable of sleeping through both of their alarms and could only be woken up by Sensei's shouting. She thought back to when she first joined the dojo and ended up being in charge of all the morning duties. Although it helped her build more strength, it certainly was annoying. But at some point she just got used to waking up earlier than the boys and according to the rules, the last person to wake up usually took care of the cleaning unless someone pitied them and decided to help out. As for the pitying and helping out part, that never actually happened. Therefore Natsume always ended up stuck with cleaning.

After their little chit-chat, she left him to clean and continued making her way to her room. On the way she was able to smell the fresh miso soup being made in the kitchen. The stock of the soup was definitely made from scratch, and unlike those days where someone would use an instant mix, she could really smell a difference. Based on the pleasant scent it must have been Haruko who was cooking and Toshiro just helping him out here and there. The boy nearing his late twenties was pretty much the only one who paid attention to details when cooking. Although their healthy diet is strictly regulated by Sensei who considered it part of an overall healthy lifestyle, Haruko was the one who cooked most of the healthy dishes.

In the distance, she could spot a short, elderly man meditating underneath the rising sun. Their bald Sensei was sat in the yard, probably aware of her arrival, Natsume's slacking, and the nice breakfast that awaited him. Not wanting to disturb him, she decided to greet him during breakfast and continued down the creaking hallway, eventually ending up in front of her own room. Taking a deep breath, she opened the sliding door only to see the room in a state she did not remember leaving it in.

Compared to when she first moved into the dojo there was more furniture. Back then she thought of the dojo as just a temporary place to stay, but now it a place she could call home. In addition to a bookshelf, study table and dressing table, the boys somehow convinced the technology hating Sensei to buy a TV. It was the only TV he let them buy, so it was in fact the only TV in the whole dojo. Although it was in her room, she allowed them to come over and watch movies if they wanted to. She wasn't sure why Sensei allowed for them to buy one, but for some reason Himeko was convinced that it was because he felt at least a little sorry for her. Experiencing trauma after trauma, her life wasn't comparable to that of a normal teens. Sensei had no children or grandchildren, but he thought of them as his own.

Being allowed to use the TV meant that they were able to access her room while she was away on her trip. Her study table and bookshelf were cleaned. Unlike the rest of her room, she would usually cause a mess on her table with pieces of scrap paper, half-empty mugs and empty water bottles and wouldn't bother to clean up after herself. After all, her motto was _'Clean the mess but not your desk'._ She naturally assumed that it was probably Haruko who cleared her table for her while she was gone. In contrast, Natsume and Toshiro left food wrappers scattered around the rest of the room. But seeing as most of them were Natsume's favourite snacks, she knew that he was the main culprit.

 _"At least clean up after yourselves..."_ she huffed in annoyance, before picking the wrappers up from the pale green tatami mats and throwing them in the trash can beside her study desk. Once her room was clean enough, she set down her cabin trolly and zipped it open. There were a couple change of clothes along with a few extra shoes she took with her, so she began to sort out the clothes she had to wash. Casual clothes aside, her work uniform was more important in case she needed them again.

Most of her days went by quite fast with her job. She never expected to land such a good paying job, so she was quite pleased with how it turned out. Besides, she also got to travel to quite a lot of places for free. Being a tour guide, and working for a popular agency she was expected to show tourists around selected spots in not just Kioto, but also in other cities around the world. Surprisingly, with her job her infamous cluelessness when it came to directions also improved.

The white shirt, blue cardigan and skirt she took to the washing machine to throw in before she could take a shower. However, someone's clothes were already inside although the machine must have stopped spinning a good while ago. Sensei washed his clothes by hand, and Haruko wasn't this irresponsible. There were only two left to blame.

"Natsu! Toshi!" She shouted at the top of her lungs from the room, hoping to get their attention. "Come and take your clothes out of the washing machine before I burn them!"

Not surprisingly, Toshiro was the first out of the two to reply to her. He shouted back from his room in the same loud voice as her. "It's not mine, I did my laundry yesterday!"

"It's mine!" She could then hear Natsume's voice coming from the front yard. Apparently he was still cleaning. "Put them in the dryer for me."

"Yeah, right! As if I'm gonna touch your contaminated underwear!"

This time, she heard a voice coming from another end of the dojo; the kitchen. "Natsu, I'm not letting Kou dirty her pretty hands with your filthy underwear. Do it yourself!" Haruko yelled.

"How rude, you guys wound me!" Natsume replied in a pouty voice. "I just washed them, so why would they be filthy?"

Himeko didn't need to think to answer his question. "Because they're yours."

"That's your reason?!"

"That's a good enough reason."

"Just shut the hell up already!" This time the voice came from Toshiro, who was growing more and more frustrated by the minute while looking for a pack of aspirin in his room. "Why do you guys have to give me a headache so early in the morning?!"

"I'm going to count down from three and if no one picks it up I'll burn it." Ignoring Toshiro's sudden outburst, she yelled back in the same loud voice as she did before. As she began to mercilessly count down, somehow Natsume was able to teleport himself from one end up the dojo to the other to save his clothes from her vicious hands. Hearing footsteps trampling their way towards her, she stopped counting, and the boy skid across the dojo floor to stop himself from running. Himeko just gave him her fakest smile, before continuing to congratulate him in a sarcastic manner. "Good, you finally made it. Well done, I expected nothing less from you."

"You're evil..." he moaned and groaned in response to her sadistic streak, which she obviously got from him. He picked out his clothes from the washing machine and stuffed them into the dryer next to it. While he was doing so, Himeko decided to place her clothes inside the washer before turning it on. Leaving the boy behind to sort out his own clothes, she stretched in satisfaction and left to go to the bathroom in order to wash off all the sweat form her long journey.

After having soaked in the bathtub for nearly an hour, she noticed her shriveled up fingers. Nothing beat a long bath after an even longer trip out of the country, but sitting in the hot tub any longer may get her in trouble with Sensei. She slowly stepped out of the tub onto the little dark green mat to prevent the floor tiles to get wet. Once again, that was another one of Sensei's pet peeves. Picking up the towel hanging from the wall, she patted her body dry. After she was done, she moisturised her skin with some body butter and dressed herself in the red hakama. She turned around to check whether the bathroom was spotless. The tub was now emptied and cleaned, the spilled water on the floor was wiped away and her towel was neatly hung on the wall to dry. Satisfied with the spotless bathroom, she picked up her little plastic basket filled with toiletries and exited the room into the hallway.

The days were still quite warm, but summer was slowly coming to an end. But then again, summer wasn't really something she would have to look forward to anyway. After all, even though two years have passed since they've returned from the final battle with the Chimera ants, she chose not to do much with her life. Haruko suggested that she should try and enroll at a local high school, and although not everyone at the dojo was content with his suggestion, they couldn't find a reason to complain. It took her a little more than six months to get back up on her feet properly. During those six months, Himeko was forced to spend her days indoors wondering what to do next. After the massive stir the Chimera ant event caused among the Hunter society, she wasn't short on job offers when she was back up on her feet. But unlike Toshiro and Natsume who were happy with the sudden increase in demand, she chose to decline all those offers. Maybe it was caused by the aftermath of the mission and her being unable to do anything without the help of others for half a year, but whatever the reason, she came to the conclusion that she wasn't the right person to go on any long-term missions. Despite the boys constantly trying to change her mind, she turned them away too. Even if she were to be dragged along by one of them, she would've had very little motivation to help out.

Her refusal to take up any missions as a contract Hunter tied in perfectly with Haruko's suggestion to join school and try to live a more peaceful, normal life. It was one of the very few ideas Haruko could come up with to try and get her to leave the dojo, and it was the only idea that she actually contemplated. But someone like her would only waste her own time by going to school. High school subjects were pretty basic for her, and she could easily learn it at home by herself. It would save her the long commute and the hindrance of others. In those wasted hours, she knew she could do something more useful.

The bright sky looked identical to the time she last saw Gon and the others. The warm summer breeze cooled off her still slightly damp nape, before giving her bitter-sweet memories of the past. Looking up, at the little clouds, the birds flying past, the luscious green leaves of the trees, nothing has actually changed. It made her wonder if anything had changed during these two years. Was she really any different from how she was back then, and were her friends still as they were back then? But that feeling only lasted until she decided to look back down. The old floor boards were starting to creak now, letting her know that it had been quite a long time since she started living there. The white sleeves of her hakama looked a bit too short on her, and she obviously grew out of them. Was this the fourth time this had happened since then? She herself hadn't noticed much difference herself, but little things like that confirmed that things have changed.

Two years ago, she told Killua that she would stop slacking off and work much harder to reach her goals, although she doubted that he'd remember something trivial like that. They haven't been in much contact since they all went separate ways after all. As far as she knew, Killua was travelling around the world with his sister over the past months and kept them updated through pictures he took on his trips as well as short messages. Other than that, he kept fairy quiet about himself. The pictures he sent were never of himself either. They were either of the scenery, or Alluka. Alluka had noticeably gotten taller, so she could naturally assume that Killua would have had a growth spurt as well. Most of the messages were hardly about himself either, and neither did he let them know about his well being. Of course, if he was asked a question like 'how are you?', he would reply with something vague and then turn the question back on her and say, 'I hope you are doing okay'. She never considered him as a mature individual when they first met, but little actions like these showed her that he had the maturity of adults. He avoided most of her personal question, and it was pretty evident that he just needed some time to himself. The sad look on his face back then was still etched at the back of her mind. She just hoped that time would heal as people said it would. Alluka's presence evidently eased his mind a lot, and she knew he'd contact her once he was ready. Until then, she was happy enough to get those little life updates from him.

Thinking of Killua, she then remembered the other participant of their three-way group chat they created before the Chimera ant incident. As Gon predicted before leaving, he ended up being buried alive in a heaps and heaps of books upon return. Himeko never met Mito, but she was sure that her strict upbringing played a big role in how he turned out. Their group chat was mainly inactive, and Himeko would sometimes send a meme or two to get a reaction out of the two boys. They would respond by sending a few emojis, and then quietly end the conversation. Therefore, she wasn't sure how much Gon and Killua talked over the two years, but Gon had been a lot more active than Killua in their private chats. His life updates were more detailed and frequent. From Mito's tough study sessions, to him sneaking out of the house late at night to train. Gon told her that he'd learn from his mistakes, and he used his time on Whale island as a fresh start. Even with Gon it was much harder for her to sense what he truly felt through just a couple of text messages. But after hearing how hard he worked to better himself, she knew that incident was still weighing down his guilty conscience. She soon realised that he too wanted some time to himself, and once he was ready Gon, was definitely the type of person to come and find her himself.

After finally arriving at her room, she opened the door and let herself in. She sat down at her little dressing table, before placing the toiletry basket on her top of it. Since she just came out of the shower, she decided to begin with her usual skin care routine. Travelling around a lot made her skin quite dry, and although her skin rarely got spots she still took good care of it. It took her some time to patiently work her way through her routine, but in the end she finished up by moisturising her skin before opening her jet black hair out of her bun.

Facing the mirror, she took a glance of how long her hair had gotten. All these years it became a habit for her to cut her hair to shoulder length and keep it that way, but she liked the way it looked when it was longer. For some reason, her hair that was just a few inches past her chest made her look more mature. Along with that, she decided to grow out her front fringe, so she didn't have that anymore either. It didn't make her look a whole lot different, after all it was just hair. But deep inside she felt like a physical change would help her feel at least an ounce of difference. Not only that, but looking at her longer hair only reminded her of the time she grew her hair out, hoping Kurapika would notice it. But of course, he was the only person to not notice anything.

She snorted derisively as if to mock herself. In the end, Kurapika had seen all the messages she left during Gon's stay in the hospital, but he never chose to reply. It could've just been because she sent him a message once Gon was out of the coma, but she knew she was just making excuses for him. Gon was in a critical state, Leorio was doing his best trying to convince Ging to visit his son, she was recovering from her own injuries and Killua was holding both Gon and Alluka's lives in his hands. Everyone was doing something to help, everyone but Kurapika. The same support Gon gave him back in Yorkshin, he didn't return. If anyone else did this, she would straight up call them an asshole. But Kurapika was different. As disappointed as she was with him, she just couldn't swear at him. If only she could direct her anger out on him, it might have eased her heart at least a little. But because she chose to stay quiet all this time, the burden within her began to grow.

Kurapika kept a low profile during their mission with the Chimera ants. There were no clues to tell her just what he might have been doing all that time, therefore she never had an opportunity to understand either. He was the one she thought she understood the best when they first met, yet now he felt just like any other stranger. He opened up to everyone during the Hunter exam, but the closer he got to the Phantom Troupe, the more he closed himself up. He was intoxicated with rage, waiting impatiently for signs of their return. But it was quiet; all these years were too quiet. One thing he knew for sure, Chrollo was going through all lengths to find a way to remove the _Nen_ blade around his heart and return to the group. In that aspect, serving the Nostrade family was still the way to go. The loss of Neon's ability was a serious downfall for their business relationship within the community. But Light gave him one new mission; to find Neon's powers and return them to his daughter. Both him and his employer were after the same criminal, so he chose to remain in the underworld. Until then, the only thing that could set his heart at peace was his mission to retrieve all the Kurta eyes and properly send off all his clan members to the other side.

And Leorio? Somehow the oldest member in their group became the backbone that kept them together all this time. His stubbornness caused him to be adamant about getting a reply back from her. If not, Leorio would just bombard her phone with texts until she messaged him back. She was sure he was just as persistent with her as with everyone else in their circle. Knowing that at least he was looking out for everyone set her mind at peace. Although he stepped out of the elections, he was still successful and became a member of the Zodiacs, replacing Gon's father's position as the Boar. Since Pariston also stepped down from his position as the Rat, he decided to invite Kurapika to take the opportunity. It took him some convincing to do, but hey, that was one of Leorio's strong points. With him around, Kurapika was in safe hands.

Just when she finished brushing her hair and set down her hair brush, Toshiro walked past her room. The tall boy with raven hair turned his brown eyes towards her door and decided to call out to her. "Hey Kou, we're going to have breakfast. Hurry up!"

"Okay, just give me a minute!"

After an eventful and bustling breakfast that morning, Sensei already left the table while the other four decided to remain after clearing up. Before going separate ways to do their morning training, Haruko looked through the pile of mail Himeko picked up from the local post office as their dojo is too far for mail to be delivered to. The brown haired young man usually received the most letters, the others found their own piles starting to rise with phone bills, bank statement; everything too boring to look through. Natsume was too scared to even look at his bank statement knowing too well that he spent too much money on online shopping the previous month.

Eventually, the large pile was gone and everyone looked through their separate mail. But at one point, Himeko, Natsume and Toshiro noticed a little surprise hidden among their mountains of letters.

"Cheadle Yorkshire." After reading through the letter, she read out the name of the sender. "She's the new Chairman is she not?"

"Not necessarily new," Toshiro corrected her. "It's been over two years since the last election."

"But does the Hunter Association even send out missions? We usually get e-mails even if someone requests us, and it's usually an employer and not the Hunter Association. I've never received a letter in the post either, it seems careless." Natsume contributed his own thoughts to the conversation, before picking up the envelope. He turned it around, hoping to find a return address but it was blank. "A scam maybe?"

"It was signed by the new Chairman on the behalf of the Hunter Association," Himeko added after reading through the letter again.

Toshiro pretty much had the same thought as her. "So, her signature is basically nothing more than a seal of approval."

"Exactly."

"In that case someone else working in the Association is hiring us," Natsume concluded, after putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. "If they're specifically requesting us, the pay must be good. It's been too long since I've been on any good missions. Maybe I'll go to the briefing to check it out."

Feeling left out of their conversation, Haruko scanned through his large pile only to discover that he didn't receive the same letter as them. "Why didn't I get one and you three did?" He then leaned over to read Himeko's letter, who was sitting beside him.

None of the letters went into much detail, in fact the letter was pretty vague which was why they thought of it as a scam at first. It mentioned that they were chosen to participate in a special mission alongside other professionals, and that all the Hunters they've picked were between thirteen and twenty-five years of age. It also requested them to log into their accounts on the Hunter website to confirm that they'll be taking part in the briefing of the mission, and then obtain the meeting place and date of the meeting.

"It sounds a little fishy..." Haruko pointed out after reading through the letter. "Especially the part about recruiting thirteen to twenty-five year old. It sounds like a cult recruitment."

However, Natsume was quick to reject that speculation. He turned his Hunter tablet towards the others so that they could see his profile he logged into. There were a couple of other requests in the list, but there was also one from the Hunter Association which stood out to them. When he clicked on it, he was asked to confirm or turn down his attendance for the briefing although it didn't actually tell him the place of the meeting on the page. The other three watched Natsume think, waiting for him to come to a decision.

Eventually, Natsume tapped confirm and sent off his decision. "I mean, it's rare to get requested by some big shot. If I do well, it will boost my profile and there'll be more demand for me in the future."

Toshiro spent a minute to think about his argument, before accepting the mission as well. "It's just a briefing. We still have a chance to turn down the mission after hearing the details." Although the raven-haired boy didn't sound as sure as his younger peer, he still wanted to give it a go. " _But that just leaves..."_

But when the boys looked at Himeko to hear her decision, they could tell how disinterested she really was. She put the letter back in the envelope and began to look through a subscription package with make-up samples, testing out various sample products they sent her. Stubborn as a rock; if she said she never wanted to go on another mission again, she would surely stick to her word.

"Look guys, doesn't this shade look good on me?" She showed them a pinkish-peach coloured lipstick swatch on her wrist. But as she looked up, she was met with faces that weren't willing to answer her question. She was trying to change the subject, and they all knew her well enough to tell that. Seeing as they were waiting for her answer, she just heaved a sigh. "I already told you guys how I feel about missions. Besides, this is something the Association sent us, so it's not going to be easy. Sure, the pay's good but I have a source of income now. I have a normal job, so I don't have to go on missions anymore."

"It's just a briefing, Kou." Natsume was adamant about changing her mind. Whenever she received requests, he was one of the people at the dojo to try and change her mind. Toshiro was another, whereas Haruko and Sensei would just try and stay out of it. "If you think it's too difficult, then turn them down there. You still have the right to turn down the mission after getting specifics, so just come along with us."

"That's a waste of time."

"You've been saying that for two years now. Personally, I think you were doing nothing more than waste two years of your life trying to avoid the Hunter Association."

"A Hunter doesn't need to go on mission. There are people who do the exam just to receive the benefits of the license. Having a license doesn't mean you're obligated to serve the Chairman and the Association."

As the the youngest pair were going back and forth trying to prove themselves right, Toshiro and Haruko could only watch without making a sound. But eventually, Haruko felt the need to interrupt, stating his own opinion in the matter. "If she doesn't want to go, don't force her. If you take her along against her own will she's just going to hate going on missions even more. It will just have the opposite effect."

"I get that she has a reason to not want to go." Toshiro agreed with, before continuing his own argument. "Last time she went on a big mission she wasn't able to do anything for six months following the mission. It must have been frustrating seeing everyone up on their feet again while being bed-bound. But that was two years ago, and we've trained a lot since then."

"Toshiro is right." Before anyone else could continue the argument, they heard the voice of the elderly Sensei coming from the entrance of the dining room. He was leaning against the frame, watching their back and forth debate. "All of you did your best to improve since the Chimera ant mission, of course that includes Himeko as well. In fact, despite being the youngest she trains harder than you boys although she goes to work. When she doesn't train, she studies in her room."

He was right, Himeko tried not to waste a minute of her life. She didn't go on any assignments, but she still trained. She didn't have any plans on going school or college, but she still kept up with her studies.

"But there has to be a point to everything you do, a reason. If you don't want to fight or go on assignments, then there's no real need for you to continue learning _Nen_. Learning _Nen_ with no motivation behind it will make you weak, you may as well quit."

"Sensei, are you threatening to kick her out of here?" Toshiro questioned after being taken aback by his sudden bluntness. His silence was a good enough answer for his pupils. Though he never got involved in any of their affairs, he didn't hesitate to make a harsh critique when necessary. After all, Himeko didn't even train with any of the boys anymore as none of them felt the need to. They would occasionally ask her to be their sparring partner, but other than that she trained on her own now.

They then heard a defeated sigh coming from Himeko's corner, before she asked to use Toshiro's tablet. Seeing her type something, they all assumed that she was logging into her own account on the Hunter website. After confirming her attendance to the briefing, she decided to open her mouth again. "I accepted, but if I'm not interested then I won't come along."

"At least you're giving it a go," Haruko commented in a comforting tone. "That's what counts!"

After around five minutes, the trio were sent the location and details about the meeting place.

 **Location:** Harbour Family Inn, Whale Island  
 **Date and Time:** 13th August, 11:45 AM

...

Two weeks later, it was finally time to depart for the mission. A long flight, followed by a couple of hours on a ship to an island in the middle of no where. The weather wasn't bad, and it stayed quite pleasant throughout their journey. But Natsume and Toshiro couldn't help but wonder why the meeting was held on Whale island out of all other places available on earth. The day long journey was exhausting and borderline annoying for the two. Although Himeko complained during the plane ride, she silently stared into the distance while on the ship.

It was a known fact to the two boys that Whale island held at least some kind of significance to her. For her, this tiny little island was where everything begun. She was returning there for the first time in over four years after getting her license. Although she tried not to, she couldn't stop herself from remembering everything that happened since crossing this starting line. She found it pretty hilarious, the boys she befriended during the storm on the ship she was still friends with. As cold as it may sound, she never planned to stay in contact with them after the Hunter exam, but it had been years since then. There was some cooking, some fighting, and a whole lot of running involved during the exam, and although she found it difficult back then, thinking back all those challenge sounded like child's play now.

Getting the guts to go to the Zoldyck estate, meeting her side clan, training in the dojo, fighting the Phantom Troupe in Yorkshin, experiencing the war in Yeddo five-hundred years ago, fighting B-class beasts from the Dark continent, for two years since the exams she was constantly on the move. She never planned to do any of it on the way to the exam site, but part of her was glad she learnt so much during that time. The journey to Whale island was filled with memories as she reminisced just how much her younger self has evolved over the years.

Whale island was where it all began, and Whale island could be the starting line for a brand new journey.

Upon arrival, the very few passengers prepared to leave the ship. Himeko too pulled along her bag and followed the two older boys out. When she looked back however she saw a very familiar old man. He was slightly on the heavier side, with white hair and a scruffy beard. The captain watched the passengers leave his ship while puffing out smoke from his smoke pipe. When his eyes met hers, he seemed to instantly recognise her too although it had been a good few years already.

During his occasional journeys to Whale island, he did see Gon once or twice at the market by the port area. With the boy it made quite a lot of sense since he lived on the island. But he always wondered what happened to the other three during the exam, and whether they all passed together. He remembered the little girl with the short black hair who sat alone in a corner of the ship reading a book quite well as she was from Gon's batch of candidates. Looking at her now, she looked more mature. Himeko looked happier and not as lonely as she was when he first saw her four years ago. Seeing how she was now, he couldn't help but feel content, remembering that storm that led all four passing candidates together that night.

Himeko bowed her head slightly, thanking him for safely leading them to the island, and possibly to thank him for safely escorting them through the storm four years ago. The captain smiled back at her and nodded in acknowledgement, before watching her exit the ship along with the rest.

It was only 10:30 AM, and since there was still some time left until the briefing, Himeko and the two boys split up to look around the area. She never really had the opportunity to do so the last time she came, so she decided she at least wanted to see what kind of place Gon grew up in. The air was crisp and clean, and the salty sea breeze by the harbour felt pleasant. It was as peaceful as Gon described, and the locals were friendly and welcoming. It was a safe country, and Killua described the place as lacking any kind of excitement they would get at other tourist places. Despite this, she thoroughly began to enjoy her walk through the neighbouring market.

"Good morning, miss!" It was one of the many greetings she got when walking past the stalls, and she turned to smile back at the elderly man.

"Good morning."

"Not from around here, are ya? Would you like to try some fresh apples? How about it, I'll let you try a piece on the house." Despite his generous invitation, she looked rather hesitant as this was a common trick used to guilt trip customers into buying something because they tried some of it for free. "Don't worry, we are a small community of mostly older folks like me. We hardly get any of you city folks visiting us, let alone lovely young girls like you. You can try a piece, but you won't need to feel the need to buy anything from me. I simply want you to enjoy your stay here."

He ushered her over to his stand, before he selected an apple from his stack and cut out a generous piece out of it. Afterwards he handed it to her he watched her try the apple. Fresh was an understatement, she could tell that the man picked the apple that very morning. It was sweet and juicy, but still had that satisfying crunch to it.

"It's good," she muttered quietly, before she was handed another piece.

"My wife will be happy to hear that. It's from one of her prized apple trees after all!" The elder smiled proudly while talking about his wife's trees, and how the apples she grew with love and affection were one of a kind. Though it may sound like an exaggeration, Himeko couldn't deny the fact that they were some of the best apples she tried.

"Could you give me six?"

"Alright, six of our apples!" He carefully selected six good apples from his pile, and threw in two oranges from the next pile. "I threw in two oranges on the house. Enjoy your stay on our island."

"Thank you. Please tell your wife that her apples are indeed one of a kind."

After interacting with some of the locals, Himeko understood why Gon turned out the way he did. Most of them were quite old, and she had yet to meet someone her age. But the locals all meant good and had pride in their small, close-knit community. As she continued to walk down the market place, she eventually heard some troubled voices coming from up ahead. She looked up at the path leading to the fish market, trying to listen to the conversation between the troubled stall vendors.

"One of the fish from the stall next to us went missing again."

"Whale island was such a peaceful place, we never had to deal with something like this in the past. It's going to take a toll on our business if this continues."

Hearing their conversation from afar, Himeko could only think one thing. _"A fish thief out of all things... Sounds rather fitting for this place!"_

Even if she did want to help out, there was very little she could actually do without having any leads. Therefore, she decided to just ignore the conversation and continue walking, hoping to find anything else that may catch her attention. But as she walked past a dark alleyway, she heard a sound coming from there. It was a very quiet _meow,_ but her ears managed to pick the sound up.

 _"Meow?"_ Although it felt a little anti-climactic, she was certain that her hunch about the identity of the fish thief was right. It wasn't any of her business to get involved, but she was curious if her hunch was right. Leaving her bag behind, she stepped into the abandoned alley and made her way to the source of the sound. Her footsteps were so quiet, not even an animal could hear them. Eventually, she was met with the back of a white-furred alley cat that was feasting on a large fish. _"Good kitty-kitty. Stay still just like that!"_

Perhaps it could sense someone behind it, but before it could turn around it was swept up into her arms. The white cat began to struggle in her arms, trying to get away from her whom it considered a threat. Himeko then proceeded to pick up the half-eaten fish, instantly regretting her decision due to the strong stench coming from it. But then again, she smelt much worse in the past. As the cat continued to struggle, she carried both out of the alley towards the complaining stall owners.

"Excuse me, but I overheard you complaining about a fish thief," the couple owning the stall looked up, surprised at how their quiet little conversation was overheard by a potential customer. They then looked down at the cat she was holding, and figured out the solution to the mystery themselves.

"It wasn't our fish this time, but the stall over there." The elderly woman explained, before pointing over at a nearby fish vendor. "See that young woman with the short red hair? She comes and helps out sometimes. You should go and inform her too." The couple thanked her, before they watch her carry the stray and roll her blue luggage behind her towards the next vendor. The vendor was in her early thirties, and she looked quite young compared to most of the people there who she assumed were at least in their forties. Himeko hesitated a little seeing how busy the woman was setting up her stall, but she decided to approach her nonetheless.

"Excuse me, I heard one of your fish was stolen today." It sounded a little weird saying it out loud. To the locals, an incident like this sounded like the most excitement they had in years, whereas the busier cities she visited often had problems with pickpocketing. "I caught the perpetrator."

The woman, surprised by those words looked up at the unfamiliar girl holding a half-eaten fish in one hand, and tightly holding a stray cat against her chest with the other. For some reason, although this girl was obviously a tourist, she was sure she was her before. She then looked down at the white cat, flailing it's arms and legs around.

"A cat?" The woman continued to look at the cat in silence, watching it struggle wildly in the girl's arms. "It's rather cute, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Himeko agreed half-heartedly, but then struggled to find the right word to describe the cat. "He's... charming..." Hearing this, the cat meow-ed, as if to retort to her sarcastic comment. "He certainly reminds me of someone." And she wasn't just talking about the colour of the cat's fur.

The red-haired woman smiled at her gently, "Thank you, but you didn't need to go through the trouble. I'm sure my nephew would've caught the little rascal sooner or later."

"It's fine, I just happened to walk past this little one." It wasn't exactly the truth since she found the cat in an alleyway, but since she walked passed the alley it wasn't a lie either.

"You're not from around here, are you?" It wasn't just the travel bag that made it obvious. Himeko's clothes, the make-up she wore, her hair, little things like that just screamed 'tourist' to the locals. "A tourist? Whale island is quite a unique location to choose for a holiday."

"I'm actually just here for work, not on a vacation."

"That's a real shame! Many people don't know this, but our island quite a good choice to relax and unwind for those who come from the city. I'm sorry, it may sound like I'm bragging but if you do have time, please do look around." She then pointed in the direction of some woods in the distance. "It might be far from here, but I do own a little diner over there. I'll treat you to dinner to make up for catching our little culprit. Just ask for _Green Tree Diner_ and people will give you the directions."

"It's fine, I didn't particularly do it to get something in return. I was just curious, that's all." Himeko then set the struggling cat back down on the floor, along with the fish. Instead of running away, the stray remained behind to continue feasting on the fish. She stretched out her hand, and possibly due to the fishy scent lingering on her hand the cat proceeded to lick the tips of her fingers. "Good boy. But you can't go around stealing fish anymore, got it?" As if to agree, the cat meowed obediently in response. The young woman was left to wonder where she might have seen this young girl before.

After saying her goodbyes, Himeko then left the stall to head back to meet up with Toshiro and Natsume. The young woman continued to watch until the teen was out of sight. _"Where have I seen that face before?"_ A voice then snapped her out of it, and she looked back to see a crate full of fish being set down onto the ground.

"Aunt Mito, this is the last crate from the fishermen." The sun-tanned boy wiped the sweat off his forehead away using the back of his hand, before standing up straight. He was slightly taller than Mito and had spiky black hair. After hearing meowing, the boy looked to the front of the stall to see a white cat sat obediently next to some fish bones. As if to thank Mito for the food, it continued to sing it's meows. "Did you feed him? He looks attached to you."

"He's the serial fish thief. A young girl found him in one of the nearby alleys." The cat strolled towards him to rub it's body against the boy's legs while purring. He crouched down and began to pet it gently.

"A young girl?" He tried to think of any young girls who lived around the area, only to come to a dead end. There was one girl a little younger than her on the island, but Mito knew her by name.

"Yeah, she was from the city. She was around your age, I invited her over to eat dinner with us later."

"So she was my age?"

"Yes, and quite pretty to say the least." The boy hummed disinterestedly at Mito's second comment while continuing to play with the cat. "Gon, you may only be sixteen but I think it's about time for you to find a nice girl and settle down on Whale island."

"Aunt Mito, you're just trying to stop me from leaving the island again. Besides, you already promised to let me go on the new mission if I helped you out."

"I only see four crates," Mito pointed out, purposely ignoring the fifth crate Gon brought over with him. "Look! One, two, three and four!"

"Five," Gon finished counting, pointing at the fifth one. "Aunt Mito, you pinky promised! I'll promise to be careful, so please!" Her nephew looked up at him with his big, brown puppy-eyes. Though she should've been used to it already, she couldn't refuse his request.

"Fine!" She huffed, disappointed that she couldn't say no to him. "But you have to come back home before you leave the island. And make sure to write regularly and visit us, and please be careful." Mito looked away to hide her tears from her nephew. After remembering the reason behind Gon's loss of _Nen_ , she couldn't help but worry over the stubborn boy. As she wiped her tears away using a handkerchief, she felt the young boy hug her from behind.

"Thanks, Aunt Mito." His words were comforting.

"Just go already!"

"I'll promise to come back for lunch." As Gon ran off to the Harbour Family Inn, Mito watched anxiously. The onlookers around her stall smiled, watching their usual interaction that was no less than that of a mother and son.

* * *

 **A/n-** Surprise, surprise, you didn't think I'd be back so soon, huh? But I had most of this chapter written out so why not. Rather than an actual chapter, I wrote this as a sort of prologue to set the scene. But since it's too long to be a prologue, I called it a chapter.


	2. Assemble

**Chapter Two: Assemble**

...

Whale island was truly as scenic as Gon described it to be in the past. The fresh air, luscious green grass and the seemingly endless ocean reflecting the clear blue sky. Mito was right, this place was perfect to take a couple of breathers from the hectic city life. But despite the welcoming locals and the peaceful neighbourhoods, Himeko, Toshiro and Natsume had a hard time finding their way to this so-called Harbour Family Inn. It wasn't anywhere near the Harbour at all.

"How much longer do we have to walk?" Natsume groaned in annoyance, dragging his feet behind his two peers. As far as the small island was concerned, no matter how much they looked around they couldn't find any form of public transport. No trains, buses, taxis and cars, the closest method of transport were bicycles. But there were no stores that actually rented out bicycles for tourists to use. When they tried to ask locals, they would only laugh and point out how strong their island's folks' legs were.

"You city brats still have tons to learn!" In the end, after not being able to find the inn that was supposedly near the Harbour, Himeko kindly asked one of the local elders to help them find the place. The elderly man leaning half of his body on her for support, and leaning the other half of his weight on his walking stick proceeded to complain about city folks, and how they relied too much on modern technology. "I'm turning ninety-six years old this year and I'm still fit as a foxbear."

 _"This guy reminds me of Sensei..."_ This time around, Natsume decided to keep his thoughts to himself to avoid getting another lecture. _"Wherever we go, we always meet another carbon copy of Sensei."_

Himeko was pretty much the one one out of the trio to add a few comments of her own to keep the conversation going. "Ninety-six? That's amazing!" Her flattery sounded surprisingly sincere. For someone of that age to offer guiding a group of strangers to a far-away inn was pretty impressive, at least for someone who didn't undergo an immense amount of training in their youth. Since she was the only person giving him the reactions he wanted, he kept trying to entertain her with more stories of his youth.

"Back when I was your age little lady, there was a war going on in some other part of the world. Our island wasn't involved, but soldiers sometimes came and wrecked havoc at the port. You know what we did?"

"No, what did you do?"

"We got our weapons out and sent them packing!" The old man reminisced what couldn't even be considered a war story and laughed whole-heartedly, and Himeko was the only one to chuckle in response, giving the elderly man more self-satisfaction. The two boys could sense that she wasn't laughing at the outcome of the story, they knew the kind of opponents she went up against a few years ago, and they were out of the league of some rowdy soldiers. But this frankness and laid-back attitude of this old man reminded them all of Gon. They worked hard to cultivate and protect that little community of theirs, and she found that kind of attitude rather endearing.

The elder continued to engage in this friendly conversation, threatening to possibly talk the boys' ear off, though she still seemed fine with it. Toshiro watched their reaction from behind with a dumbfounded expression on his face. _"What a little people pleaser..."_

She didn't contribute much to the conversation, but she was still giving him her full attention. She genuinely listened to his stories rather than adding much herself. Perhaps it was her job as a tour guide that made her a whole lot more natural and comfortable dealing with strangers. In the past, she did have the skill to talk and interact with random passerby, but she would only decide to do so if it was to her own convenience. Maybe her reactions just seemed more genuine now that she had gotten more used to it, and they obviously needed a local's help finding their way around the island.

Some time later, the group was finally able to see an old building ahead in the distance. The elder stopped walking, pointing straight ahead. "That's the Harbour Family Inn."

They couldn't see the details of the place from where they were standing, but the classic white exterior, tattered black roof and dense grey smoke coming out of the chimney gave it a rustic vibe. The old man chose that to be their drop-off point and didn't see any point in taking them further up the slope. He remained behind, watching the trio grip their bags tightly and march forward with newfound determination. But not even half-way up the slop, the young girl stopped walking, handed her bag to the older boys and ran back down to him.

"I'll take you back to the town!" She crouched down on the ground, her back facing him. The elderly man looked rather uncertain, to which she reassured him, "I'm still a growing foxbear, but I'm quite strong myself!" From the top of the hill, both Natsume and Toshiro watched her effortlessly carrying the elder back to town.

"What a sudden change in character..." Hearing the cynical remark from him, the younger one of the pair patted him on his back.

"Don't be so grumpy, Toshi!" Natsume responded in his usual easy-going attitude. "The people here are quite simple and optimistic, but their positivity is contagious. I guess she is someone who's more likely to succumb a case of niceness." He then picked up his luggage and turned around to look at the worn-out building in front of him. "More importantly, this place is giving me the heebie-jeebies."

"You sound old. Couldn't you find a different word?"

"Hmm... I wonder if Kou will be okay if she sees this place. I bet you two hundred jenny that she'd freak out."

"It wouldn't be much of a bet if we both bet on the same thing. Besides, isn't two hundred a little cheap? You can't even buy a chocolate bar with that these days."

"I only have that much one me right now. I'm nineteen, what did you expect?" While the pair made their way to the front desk of the inn, Himeko steadily walked down the path back to the town, listening the more stories by the elder man. She wasn't entirely sure why he felt comfortable enough to be so honest with her, but at some point the conversation steered in that direction, and she finally understood.

"My grandchildren must be around your age," his voice was filled with warmth, but there was also a hint of sadness to it. "My missus and I only had one child, a healthy young girl we raised on this island. Once she was all grown up, she fell in love with a man from the city and moved away. She sent us letters frequently, and we got the news of our very first grandchild being born. But at some point, she got accustomed to the city and the letters stopped coming."

She understood that this may be the reason he addressed them so harshly when they first met, though he still offered to help in the end. "You and the missus must be very lonely then." She wasn't very good at comforting others, but tried her best to show concern for him and his wife. A community made up of mostly elderly, it made sense now. She heard a similar story from Gon who's father left the island to explore, and only returned once with Gon as an infant. Although Gon sympathised with Mito, he wasn't attached enough to Ging to share the same feelings of loneliness as her. But apparently tales like this weren't too rare for the isolated island.

"My missus can't remember our daughter. There are times where she forgets even me. The doc called it dementia, it likes to accompany old age apparently."

Himeko didn't think any words of comfort could make him feel better. "I'm sorry to hear that," was the best she could manage.

"It's not just us, many of our children set out to stand up on their own feet. Don't misunderstand me, a handful still come and visit, but others easily forget this place exists." He noticed that her head looked down at the ground, possibly taking back her initial opinion of this island. It wasn't just a peaceful island filled with only happy-go-lucky and optimistic folks.

Gon often complained how his aunt was hesitant to let him go to the Hunter exam, and it made quite a lot of sense now. He got his curious and adventurous nature from Ging, and Mito was afraid that he won't return home one day. Growing up she must have seen many of her peers moving away and not looking back even once.

"Don't worry, we still get quite a few visitors here and there. There's a young lad your age who comes and often keeps my missus company. She's quite wary around strangers, but she took a liking to that boy."

"Grandpa Joh!" From the distance, they heard the voice of a boy, and the old man immediately recognised it and looked up ahead.

"Speak of the lil devil." Himeko didn't recognise this voice, but noticed that it was enough to cheer the old man up. She too looked up ahead, only to see a familiar boy waving at them and jogging their way. "Gon, what brings you to these parts?"

"I've got some business at the old inn," he replied, his eyes fixed on the elder man who was at eye level. Eventually, he came to a halt after finally looking down at the person carrying him down the seemingly endless path. His eyes blinked in disbelief as his attention drew to the familiar young girl. "Kou? You're Kou, right?"

"Hey, good morning!" She on the other hand kept her greetings so plain, she sounded almost nonchalant about meeting him. She wasn't exactly unsurprised, but at the same time, the odds of running into Gon on this small island weren't that low to begin with. To him on the other hand, she was the last person he expected to see carrying an island resident around.

"I'm guessing the two of you are well acquainted already." The attention turned back to the old man, who requested to be set down again. "I'll be able to walk the rest myself, I'm nearly halfway there anyway."

"Are you sure? I can still drop you off at the harbour. The meeting's not until half an hour."

"I appreciate the kind offer, but the two of you are headed the same way. I'm sure you have a lot to catch up on."

"Grandpa Joh, mind if I drop by today? Hey Kou, wanna come along with me?" After hearing the old man's story, she couldn't find the heart to turn his request down.

"I don't mind."

"I'm sure my missus will be happy."

For some reason, the pair felt compelled to see the old man off until he was completely out of sight. It wasn't until then when they turned around and headed towards the meeting place. By now, they both concluded that they were headed to the same location, hence they were involved in the same assignment. But that still didn't stop Gon from pouting in disappointment.

"Why didn't you tell me you'd be coming to Whale island?!" Gon went as far as snapping at her. "If I turned down this request, I might not have seen you while you were here."

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" In contrast to him, her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Maybe if a certain someone actually bothered to hold decent conversations now and then, I would've had the heart to inform you before coming."

"You're as heartless as ever..."

It wasn't that she didn't want to see him. In fact, she hoped to at the very least catch a small glimpse of him while on the island. But the fear of rejection didn't allow her from telling him of her arrival, and neither was it allowing her to plan on informing him. The fact that all three of them were so adamant about taking some time out to improve themselves worried her. Sometimes she feared that she was never going to see them again despite knowing that it wasn't true. If she did end up telling him about her trip to Whale island, she was afraid that he would refuse to meet up with her, telling her that he wasn't prepared to do so yet. But it was the opposite actually.

In contrast to her previous cynical comment, a tender smile played on her pink lips. The smile extended to a wide grin, until she just couldn't hold it in any longer. Gon was surprised to see her laughing uncontrollably while clutching her stomach, struggling to even talk. It all happened without warning. "Your voice," she exclaimed in her laughing fit, and it took her a few moments to even finish her sentence. "It's so deep, it doesn't suit your face at all."

Gon did grow taller, and she knew his growth spurt wouldn't stop there. Gon just turned sixteen not too long ago, so she was sure he would grow a lot more. But appearance wise, although his features matured a little he didn't look any different. She remembered his voice before he hit puberty, and when comparing the enormous difference she couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, you shrunk! You're are _sooooo_ tiny!" In his defence, he began to nitpick things about her that have changed, although he couldn't pick up much himself. She did sound a little older, but it wasn't as drastic as his own change in voice. In his eyes, she was still the same Himeko who awkwardly said goodbye to him at the airport. But his attempt didn't phase her at all.

"I've always been shorter than you. I've only ever been the same height as you when we first met, then you began to outgrow me."

"But you're much shorter now!" It was an exaggeration on Gon's part, the top of her head was above his shoulders, and she too had some growing left to do. She wasn't exactly short, her height was pretty average for a girl her age. Some could even consider her a little taller than average for a girl from Nippon.

Despite his initial disappointment that his friend didn't inform him of her arrival, he was over the moon to see her again. It was a sensitive topic to touch, and he spent the years walking around eggshells. Though he pretended not to know, he was aware of the pact Killua made with Biscuit two years ago. He also knew that Himeko must've tried to talk him out of it. The Transmuters wore perfect pokerfaces, but Gon was able to see right through them. It was his selfishness that caused some of this awkwardness between the three in the first place, and he didn't want to be selfish and insist on seeing them until Killua gave them a sign.

As much as they both expected some awkwardness the remain between them, it was frankly the opposite. Once the conversation started, it flowed naturally like a stream of water. Eventually, they began talking about the mission itself after admitting that both turned down the multiple requests they received in the past. According to him, Himeko and the boys at the dojo weren't the only ones who received a lot of requests after the Chimera ant mission. But what compelled them to go along this time?

"Aunt Mito finally allowed me, and you?"

"I was dragged along."

"You didn't want to come?"

"Well, no."

"By 'dragged along', are Natsu, Toshi and Haruko also here?"

"Natsu and Toshi are. Haru was over the age limit, so he sulked in a corner while we all packed for the trip." Since Gon could almost imagine it, he let out a chuckle after recalling memories of them from the past. "I doubt I'm going on the mission, I was told to come to the briefing and turn the client down in person."

It sounded like Himeko didn't change one bit, but Gon knew that wasn't it. In the past she would often refuse to take part in some of their plans, frightened by the dangers lurking beneath them. But after feeling the chilling breath of the reaper on their necks, there wasn't a lot that made them feel the same way. She just didn't want to go on missions anymore, and Gon chose to understand that now that he was more mature.

There were times in the past where he would try to convince her, or even drag her along to play part in his and Killua's shenanigans. Most, if not all of the times she was half-forced into participating. But when it came to something like this, Gon felt like he had no power to drag her along with him. He could try to convince her, but he couldn't spend the rest of his life dragging her along against her own will. But he knew how self-centred that was. Himeko would never be happy living the rest of her life that way.

"That's a shame!" He let out a heaved sigh, fearing that this reunion might be short-lived. "Have you been on any missions in the past two years? I got a ton of offers, so I assumed you and the rest got them too."

"I did, but I didn't go on any of them. I've always turned them down."

"I had to turn them down as well. Aunt Mito was hesitant on letting me go out, and it took me nearly a whole year to relearn _Nen_. I couldn't do it through initiation like Killua and I did it with Wing, so I had to train from scratch."

"Sounds tough!"

"No, I'm just glad I'm able to use it again."

His relieved face made it plain obvious just how lost he must've felt not being able to use _Nen_. There was always this look of excitement on this face whenever he trained and came up with a new way to use his abilities. She felt the same kind of euphoria after coming up with a bulletproof plan, but then again she required more than training and fighting to grant her a sense of self-satisfaction. In Gon's case however, chaining him up on Whale island and asking him to never fight again was torture. Just like Ging, he craved the adventure and occasional danger. It became like an addicting drug, something he just couldn't live without.

"I'm guessing that you're going along regardless."

"Remember how I talked to Ging before returning home?" Himeko nodded, recalling the event that concluded his journey and the picture he sent to give an fulfilling end to the era. "I love Grandma and Aunt Mito, and I doubt I can ever live without them like Ging does. Ging exchanged his life with me, Aunt Mito and Grandma for a life filled with adventure. But I don't dislike him for choosing to do that. When we talked I could sense that exploring was something irreplaceable to him."

She heard this story multiple times already, but Gon wasn't desperately trying to paint his father in a good light. To him he wasn't a father, but just Ging. He was an outstanding Hunter who made remarkable contributions to the society, but most importantly, he lived life the way he wanted to. Although she couldn't find the heart to like Ging due to his irresponsibility, she knew how much Gon still respected him.

"I want to see the world for myself just like he's doing right now. After looking down from the World Tree, I realised just how much I've got left to see." His words came to a sudden halt, and his brown eyes focused on the rocky ground. "But I don't want to make Aunt Mito sad. I want to return once in a while with souvenirs, and tell Grandma and Aunt Mito stories of everything I've seen before setting out to see something new again."

Whether he was being plain selfish, or selfless not even she could determine. He wanted to keep two things to himself, knowing how difficult it was to do so. Even the great Ging had to choose between the two, and chose to give his sole attention to just one of his options. Gon may be his son, but he wasn't Ging. He couldn't bring himself to do the same.

"Sounds like you're still the selfish prick you used to be."

"And you still don't hold back, Kou..."

"Either way, doesn't it feel a little nostalgic talking like this? It's so peaceful."

The long walk back down the path towards the inn with Gon felt relaxing. Himeko knew these peaceful days wouldn't last too long if she went on the mission with everyone else. As much as it reassured her to have her friends around, it just didn't take away the danger factor. The more friends in danger, the more she had to worry.

"We nearly have the old NGL crew back together if we exclude Kite and his team," Gon pointed out, letting out a sigh while reminiscing. "I wonder if Killua's coming. He would've gotten a letter too, right?"

"Most likely. But he'll be worried about leaving Alluka behind, so I doubt he'll turn up."

After hearing that the possibility of Killua showing up was close to zero, the conversation about him stopped abruptly and diverted to all the other members of the old NGL team, as well as the Infiltration team. Gon was still in contact with most, if not all the members and updated her on all of their whereabouts. Kite and his team began their journey again and started off by doing smaller missions. The Hunter Association was quite hesitant about involving Chimera ants with everyday activities, so Himeko often wondered what their fate might be. However, for some reason the Hunter Association half-halfheartedly accepted them. Haruko and the others told her about a rumour going around the society that a couple thousand unhatched cocoons were found after Mereum's death. Each Chimera ant was able to use _Nen,_ and although the idea was initially opposed by numerous committee members, they all came around to accepting the idea of using them to aid Hunters and the society in general.

Himeko was still in contact with Palm and they would occasionally send each other text messages. She also explained that right after the incident, the involved Chimera ants were left isolated to avoid stirring up any more panic. Therefore she was living with Kite, Colt, Meleoron and some of the other ants for some time. After a while, the new Chairman allowed her to continue accompanying Knov on his missions. Ikalgo was also allowed to accompany them without the need for a license, and according to Gon, Meleoron was allowed to accompany Knuckle and Shoot during their missions. Morel on the other hand was offered a promotion after his efforts, but he decided to turn it down.

The walk up the hill didn't feel like much of a chore when talking about their old teammates, and it didn't take long for the pair to end up in front of the Harbour Family Inn. Himeko never expected it to be busy, but the building was pretty much deserted. When they walked to the front reception, Gon greeted the familiar owner by the front desk. While they were engaging in small talk, she took a good look at the old fashioned interior. She figured homely wasn't a good word to use, and the term 'eerie' would do a much better job at describing the place.

Gon handed over his license, and the owner looked through a list before ticking the space next to his name. He then handed over a small visitor pass to him and informed him of the meeting room which was in one corner of the ground floor. The man then turned to Himeko, and looked at the license she handed him. She looked through the list again, and placed a small tick beside her name with his red pen.

"Here's your pass Miss Inoue."

"Thanks."

"Kou, you can go ahead. I'm need to go to the bathroom first." After asking the owner for the direction, Gon headed towards the toilet on the ground floor which was on the opposite end of the meeting room. Himeko waited for him to leave, and after thanking the inn owner again she took small but steady steps towards the conference room. Once she was in front of the door, she felt compelled to take out the blue pocket mirror she carried around in her bag. She took a moment to stare at the intricate design lining the front cover of the mirror, before taking in a deep breath.

 _"Okay, you can do it! You can turn them down! Don't let Gon, Natsu or anyone sway you!"_ She exhaled deeply and opened up the mirror to give herself a final check before meeting the client. She used her fingers to smooth out any fly away strands and checked whether her make-up still looked fine. Finally, she double-checked whether she had any leftover food or lipstick on her teeth. With a loud snapping sound, she shut the mirror again and the inn keeper looked dumbfounded when she seemed to chant something. _"Oh mighty mirror given by Killua, lend me strength to turn these persuasive people down!"_

She knocked on the door thrice, and from the other end she heard Natsume's voice telling her to come in. Apparently he already made himself way too comfortable. Assuming that his permission was good enough, she turned the gold knob and opened the wooden door. But to her surprise, she already knew every single person in the room. It wasn't surprise, but shock. Upon seeing the familiar face she felt nauseous. It wasn't the pleasant feeling she thought she would feel when meeting this person again.

Apart from height, physically he didn't look any different from when she last saw him. It was the intense, frosty aura around him that made her feel that way. The man with the silky blonde hair sat in one of the cushioned chairs around the meeting table and looked up at her with his blue, questioning eyes, voicelessly asking her why she was still standing by the door. She took it as a hint to step in and close the door behind her, but still made no efforts to join any of the men at the table.

"Good morning." Kurapika was the first to break the silence with a simple greeting.

"Good morning." She was forced to repeat his words back to him like a trained parrot, unable to find any other ways to greet him. But after that short exchange, there was nothing but dead silence and she was left to wonder if that was it. Kurapika continued to sit and read through some documents. He looked handsome in his formal black suit, but his unsmiling expression made it look like he just mourned and came out of a funeral.

She scanned her surrounding again after finally being able to tear her eyes away from him. The room was solely used for meeting purposes, and because of that that the window sill grew dusty as the room remained unused for some time now. The carpet was light grey with some coffee stains near one corner of the table, and most of the room was taken up by the large, round meeting table placed in the centre. Hanging from the ceiling was a projector which they questioned whether it would still work. That said, the table wasn't exactly that big compared those used in conference rooms of bigger cooperations. They could easily tell by the number of seats that their team was going to be relatively small. So far only Kurapika, Natsume and Toshiro were sat there, with Himeko still left to take a seat.

There was a seat left open between Natsume and Toshiro, and she couldn't help but wonder whether it was left open on purpose. Toshiro used his chin to gesture for her to sit in the empty seat, and although the pair was acting nonchalant about it, the thoughtful act of kindness made her feel a little more relaxed in the silent, tense room. An unpleasant silence engulfed the whole room shortly after, and Himeko was left staring at the floor in the hopes that she could get out of there as soon as possible. The sound of paper being flipped through finally stopped, and when Natsume looked up he saw that Kurapika finally placed the pile of documents aside.

"I apologise for not introducing myself earlier, my name is Kurapika. I'm part of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs under the alias Rat." His voice was calm, masking any emotions he may be feeling. "The client has requested me to lead this mission."

For some reason, not even this distant tone intimidated Natsume as he began to introduce himself. "Natsume Watanabe. It's too long, so you can just stick to Natsu."

"I know you, I've had someone recommend the two of you for this mission. He hasn't met you in person, but he vouched that the two of you were trustworthy." Kurapika sounded as if he was reading off a script he memorised the night before. "Natsume Watanabe, you're the same age as me and a Conjurer," he said before turning his attention the the raven haired man sitting on Himeko's other side. "Tuo Zhou, but you go by Toshiro after moving to Kioto, correct? The documents said you were twenty-four, and an Enhancer." Due to his no-nonsense tone the pair just continued to sit there and nod like obedient school children. But his intimidating expression vanished, and his lips curved up into a gentle smile. "You don't need to be so stiff. Thank you for taking good care of Kou."

Words said out of concern for a close friend only caused unintentional damage. If Kurapika really had any concern for them he would've contacted them sooner and not used this planned meeting as a sorry excuse for a reunion. It only left her to wonder, how? How could he be so indifferent about everything? How could he just decide to appear out of no where and expect everything to be fine?

"They do. They spoil me rotten, I end up feeling like royalty."

It came out sounding like an indirect jab at him. She then pressed her lips together in an attempt to not say anything more she would later regret. Perhaps it was plain obvious to the others around her, so the two men by her side both looked down at her with concern. Yet Kurapika looked completely clueless, or maybe he expected this to be a normal reunion just how they reunited back in Yorkshin city. No, he wasn't that oblivious, and maybe even he sensed that something about her was off. But didn't choose to interfere with it.

"Ah, I'm so thirsty from trekking up this treacherous path!" Whatever tension was slowly starting to suffocate everyone was immediately dispersed by Natsume's loud and melodramatic voice. "If only my favourite and only student could go out and fetch me some fresh spring water from the mountains."

"I can ask for some water to be brought over to you."

But Natsume just bluntly turned down Kurapika's offer. "No, no, I'd feel better if it were done by a pretty woman. But we don't have any women around, so I'll have to deal with Kou doing it instead."

His dramatic monologue carried on and on as he was trying to focus all the attention on himself. It was his usual nonsense, but there was no trace of the initial awkwardness left. Himeko knew this was an opportunity created by him for her to get out of the room and cool her head. Therefore, while everyone was caught up with him she quietly slipped out of the room and headed towards the front desk to get a water bottle. Just when she took out her phone to send a thank you message to her saviour, she received one from him instead.

* * *

 **From: Natsume (received 11:30AM)**

15 mins til the meeting. Get some fresh air!

* * *

There was a whole line of different emoticons, possibly trying to make the message sound more light-hearted, though it was a little excessive. Nonetheless, it felt nice having them watch her back like this. Having had a taste of what it was like being in a room with Kurapika made her even more reluctant to want to go along. So what if Leorio could ignore all his snide remarks and continue to stick to him like a leech? Or what if Gon always found a way to get along with even the most stubborn individuals? Natsume too shared this dynamic of being able to get along with just about anyone he meets, so it made her wonder why she was the only one who was bothered by it all. If she went along, a lot of her thoughts would end up being preoccupied by him, and only him.

 _'Kurapika is there, so I don't want to come along.'_

 _'Of course you'd be the one to know how I was doing, or who was taking care of me.'_

It felt unprofessional just thinking that in her head, so she couldn't even imagine saying it out loud to anyone. Maybe if she was three, or even two years younger she would've been able to say that. If she were younger, she wouldn't have hesitated one bit to give him a piece of her mind. She missed that bluntness of hers.

 _"If only I was a little younger."_

"Kou! Look who I found in the bathroom!" Just as she put her phone away, she saw Gon and with an man in his mid twenties. That familiar old navy blue suit, those small circular shades and that clean cut black hair and tan skin, she'd recognise him anywhere.

"Kou!" Leorio beamed excitedly upon seeing her. "Look at how much you've grown, I almost didn't recognise you there."

Upon seeing the familiar face, she felt a sudden urge to return some good old banter. "I've become much prettier, haven't I?" She jokingly bragged as she would always do.

"Ah, that's the attitude I missed so much! You feel a lot more familiar now that I've heard those words," he couldn't help but laugh whole-heartedly, before looking back and forth from her to Gon. "I can't believe it, Gon's nearly as tall as me and Kou doesn't have the body of a ten year old boy anymore."

"Watch it old man, I'm still a minor."

"But seriously, you two were so puny when we first met. To think that you'll both breathe the same air as me soon." Leorio couldn't help but take another glance at the pair standing side by side. "Ah, I think I'm gonna cry!"

"Don't cry Leorio!"

"Leorio, are you part of the mission, too?" It seemed as though she finally remembered the reason they were all on Whale island in the first place. She lightly punched his arm, before pouting unhappily, "You should've told me! You're the only one who regularly texts me and you failed to tell me something this important."

"Kurapika and I were part of the planning team, of course we couldn't tell you about a confidential mission."

"But I tell you _everything_!"

"If I told you who was on the team you wouldn't have come today."

"Of course I wouldn't have. You tricked me, you piece of shit!"

Whilst hearing the back and forth argument, Gon couldn't help but exchange a toothy grin with the arguing pair. He missed these interactions so much, but at the same time, he felt out of the loop about something. Leorio and Himeko were talking about something he wasn't aware of. It made him wonder why she wouldn't have come along if she knew who was involved in the mission. If anything, he would've expected her to jump at the chance just like he would. Not just that, the look on her face when she came out of the room couldn't help but bother him. Kurapika's distant attitude wasn't new to him, or anyone for that matter. But regardless of that, Himeko still gave him an enthusiastic and warm welcome when they reunited in Yorkshin. This time was different.

Leorio took a look at his silver wrist watch, "It's nearly time for the meeting, we'll continue this later."

"You better have a valid excuse ready for me after the meeting!" As Leorio and Himeko walked towards the meeting room, Gon watched the sparks that flew between them and quietly chuckled to himself. But before following them, he couldn't help but look back at the inn's entrance. His hopeful eyes were betrayed when there were no signs of Killua.

Inside the conference room, everyone settled down while Kurapika set up the projector with the help of Leorio, who was tall enough to just tiptoe to turn it on. Gon of course was delighted to see not just Kurapika, but also Toshiro and Natsume again. His interactions with Kurapika was fairly short as he had to prepare for the briefing, but even Kurapika's face lit up after seeing nearly everyone gathered together in one place. In the meantime, Natsume and Gon chatted like no tomorrow with Natsume gushing about how much the younger boy had grown since they last saw each other. The more introverted duo, Himeko and Toshiro, sat quietly, only adding small bits and pieces to the conversation.

It might have been because Leorio and Gon were in the room with her, but it wasn't all that awkward any more. Toshiro and Natsume didn't know Kurapika well, and from the mission's standpoint he'd be considered their boss. Only Leorio, Gon and her who've known him since the Hunter exams were close enough to look past the whole hierarchy, and both Gon and Leorio were individual's who were pretty laid-back and wouldn't think twice about addressing their superiors more casually. Their presence alone diffused the initial tension about having two of the more stone-faced members of their small circle around.

Once the two Zodiacs were done setting up, the now energetic room was interrupted by a few unexpected knocks on the door. Thinking whether it might have been the inn keeper, Leorio answered it, "Come it," but when the door opened, they weren't greeted by the older gentlemen owning the inn, but a teen they all knew too well.

"Killua?!" Gon was the first to blurt out his name, before his mouth hung wide open in awe. Now that all the attention in the room was on him, Killua took a good look at everyone inside, only to realise that everyone in their little circle actually decided to turn up. They were all a little older, and Gon and Himeko were significantly taller, but they were still recognisable.

When he stepped into the conference room, he couldn't help but think, _"It feels good to be back!"_

As every pair of eyes was still on him, they noticed that this was still their good old Killua. His silver hair was still messy and unkept, looking as if he forgets to brush it every morning. In terms of height, he was still a couple of inches taller than Gon, around the same height as Natsume and a little taller than Kurapika. Toshiro and Leorio still beat everyone in terms of height, while Himeko couldn't even be included in this competition of who's tallest. But it made quite a lot of sense in a way, both his parents were extremely tall, while Ging wasn't nearly as tall as Silva. When it came to muscular built however, he came second to Gon since Gon was an Enhancer.

"I thought this brat wasn't going to come!" Even Leorio who was part of the planning team looked quite confused at his sudden appearance. "You didn't answer the invite."

"He wasn't sure if he could make it, so he contacted me first," Kurapika answered on the late-comer's behalf, hoping it would satisfy everyone's curiosity. "He phoned me this morning to inform me of his attendance, so I don't start the meeting before he arrives."

"I had some business in Padokea, so I wasn't sure if I could come to an agreement before the meet day." Killua explained, setting his travel bag down in the corner with all the other bags. Republic of Padokea was where Kukuroo Mountain was located, and it sort of became common knowledge to them that his family estate was there. Not even Kurapika knew what kind of business he had over there because the teen kept it to himself. But noticing that Alluka wasn't there, Gon, Himeko and Leorio began to wonder whether it had something to do with his younger sibling.

No one asked any questions, so Killua didn't have to answer any. He quietly sat down in the open seat next to Gon, opposite Himeko who was sandwiched between the two men from Kioto.

Killua couldn't help but think, _"They look like a barricade."_ Probably because Natsume was already in on his secret, he grinned at him mischievously. Killua remembered that familiar feeling of being constantly teased by those around him and shuddered at the thought of being teased again. Toshiro probably didn't care about anyone's romantic affairs unless it somehow negatively affected the girl sat beside him. When he looked at the girl in the middle, he was met with her dark blue eyes staring right back at him.

Although Gon, Leorio and Kurapika didn't feel like she was any different than she was two years ago, Killua however couldn't help but notice a difference. Her body looked more feminine, her features matured a little, and he couldn't help but wonder if she'd get any more prettier with age. He began to notice the smallest details, for example the second lobe piercing she didn't have before which only Gon's sharp eyes have spotted so far, or the small spot on her forehead which she desperately tried to hide with some concealer, hoping no one around her would notice.

"Oh look, it's another guy who doesn't know how to text back!" Her cynical remark dragged him back out of his own thoughts. Killua furrowed his brows and frowned in response. Why did he even bother expecting a welcome back from her? Feeling another set of eyes on him, he looked to his side where Gon grinned back at him, looking thrilled to have him join the group.

"It feels nice to have you by my side again!"

Whether it was Gon's warm greeting, or Himeko's cynical one, they were both their own different ways of welcoming him back on the team. Killua appreciated that.

"Yeah, it does feel good to be back!"

After all the small talk had ended, Kurapika stood up and began the briefing. Using the projector and a laptop, Leorio displayed a picture of a young girl, probably a High school student, on the large white screen. The picture was taken from afar, and because it was zoomed in it was extremely blurry. It was taken on a moonlit night, and the girl was on top of a building.

"This is the daughter of our client," Kurapika began to explain. "She's eighteen years old, and this picture was taken in Yorkshin a couple of months ago. There was a murder that same night in the area, and we can't help but include this girl in the list of suspects."

"So she's a hitman," Killua commented. "Nothing impressive though, if you're brought up in the assassin business you start at a much younger age."

"Yes, we do think she's been hired by someone as a hitman." Kurapika agreed with his first point. "But she's not part of a business that involves assassinations. Her father, who's our client is a member of the Hunter Association. Due to confidentiality I can't disclose his identity, but we've run background checks on both him and his wife to confirm that they aren't involved in anything illegal. They're both Hunters."

"So, she's doing it on her own?" Gon questioned.

"There are a lot of Hunters who just don't have the time to look after their kids," Natsume pointed out. "It doesn't sound odd for them to go through a rebellious phase."

"But you also have to include the possibility of her being forced into it," Himeko added, creating another path for the mystery to shape up. "I mean if her parents aren't keeping an eye on her then someone might take advantage of it."

Leorio nodded along as all their theories sounded plausible, but then decided to throw in a curveball. "That's where everything gets weird though. This girl attends a private _Nen_ Academy out in Landen, and Kurapika and I looked into this school. These students aren't allowed to go abroad during term time, and they have to abide by a curfew at night. The rules are pretty strict, and there have been multiple expulsions made because of broken rules."

"I'm guessing this picture was taken during term time then?" Killua asked, to which Kurapika and Leorio simultaneously nodded.

"It was also taken at night," Gon pointed out. "It looks like the picture was taken around one or two in the morning."

"And you're going to tell us she wasn't expelled, right?" After Natsume asked his question, the two mission leaders once again nodded their heads.

Then, Toshiro who was silent all this time decided to speak up. "So, in other words the Hunter Association thinks the school has something to do with it."

"We don't have conclusive evidence to point fingers at anyone, neither do we want to cause a stir within the society." Kurapika sighed as he explained, "Hence we could only come up with one other option." His words rung a few bells, and everyone in the room could predict what was about to come next. "We have to go in and investigate ourselves."

Leorio then flipped through a few slides on his powerpoint, and each slide had a picture of a different student on it. "That girl wasn't the only one, there are multiple students from this same school that were involved in illegal activities. Since they all go to the same school that's naturally the first place we can all suspect."

The pair proceeded to explain how the school consisted of a primary and secondary school, along with a few _Nen_ related college courses for eighteen to twenty-five year olds to attend. Students must reside in the dorms on the school ground, and as stated earlier they were only allowed to visit family during the holidays. On weekends, students were allowed to go out to the nearby towns to run errands or relax but they had to receive permission first. Along with that, primary and secondary students especially had really strict curfews while the college students had a little more flexibility.

"We can't trust a lot of people and we need this to be kept confidential until our theories are confirmed. That's why we only sent out invitations to people who are within the age range to enrol, and most importantly, we needed people we could trust."

Kurapika's words left a long silence hanging in the room. Going to school included a lot of responsibilities, the most dreadful of those was studying. To make matters worse it was a boarding school with strict curfews and very little freedom. As studying was involved, even Gon who was craving an adventure had to give it some thought before giving his answer.

Natsume beat him and was the first to put up his hand, "Count me in! I can handle a bit of studying!" Not too soon after, Gon put up his hand as well, wanting to sign up for the mission.

"I want to go too!" He then looked at his same-aged friends, expecting them to do the same.

Killua heaved a long sigh, "Fine, I'll help out." Despite his bored and unenthusiastic tone, even he seemed to crave some action after so long. As the organisers, Kurapika and Leorio were naturally participating in the mission as well. Gon then faced Himeko with an expectant look on his face. However, her words left him and Leorio disappointed.

"I only came to turn the offer down."

"Come on!" Leorio exclaimed in an exaggerated manner. "You're turning the offer down even after our fateful reunion?"

"Work is work, play is play." Though she was the youngest in the room, her words were probably the most mature thing anyone had said in that room so far. "I'm not tagging along just because you lot are. If you really want to hang out with me, invite me out to a cafe before I leave Whale island, and I'll hang around you as much as you want. But I'm not willing to half-heartedly tag along a mission because you guys are going along. I'll be a nuisance."

Leorio shot an expectant look at Kurapika, hoping his words may sway her. But much to their dismay, Kurapika ended up agreeing with her, going as far as praising her for her choice. "Kou's right, I would've been disappointment in her if she gave me a different response."

"You don't get it Kurapika! Girls are more comfortable talking about certain things with other girls, and it would definitely be more advantageous to have someone who can freely walk around the girls' dorm."

For a whole minute, Leorio tried to convince them that she was more irreplaceable than the other members due to the fact that they didn't have any other girls on the team. During the time he made some really good points that would've easily swayed anyone else, but Kurapika and Himeko didn't budge. It wasn't that Kurapika didn't want her to come along, he just wanted everyone to take their jobs seriously. They weren't going on any old trip as a group of friends, but a paid mission that was set by his higher ups in the Hunter Association. He didn't find any faults in her words, but he was rather fond of them. Work was work and play was play. Himeko was still the youngest in the group, younger than Gon and Killua, but he found her level-headedness respectable.

"Don't some people go on one last mission before retiring?" Natsume intervened, knowing he would have a much better chance at convincing her than the others. "You may still be young, but if you don't go on any missions after this then you're technically retiring as a Hunter. Just think of this as your official last mission, and no one will bother you once this is done. Besides, you didn't even update your profile on the Hunter website, it still says you're accepting jobs. It's pretty obvious that even you crave some excitement in your life since you haven't updated it in two years."

She was a perfectionist, hence leaving something unfinished was one of her pet peeves. It would bother her if she never reached a conclusion, and ever since the mission with the Chimera ants all she did was run away. Natsume knew what would hurt her the most, so he kept aiming for that one spot mercilessly.

"What's the pay like?" If this wasn't a group of close-knit friends, this question would've been expected. But since no one asked this yet, it came as a surprise.

"It's higher than your usual assignment. All the children on these slides have parents in the Hunter Association, some being quite influential. Money is no problem, you will be rewarded generously." Kurapika cleared her doubts in his business-like tone.

"Fine, I'll consider this my last mission before retirement."

After she was so quick to agree thanks to Natsume's few words, everyone looked at them, dumbstruck. _"So, that's all it took to convince her..."_

Himeko could only let out a loud sigh, _"Oh_ , _Killua's mighty mirror, you've failed to give me the_ _strength to turn these idiots down!"_

* * *

 **A/n:** My holiday present to you all!

I feel like a lot more should've happened in this chapter, but her reunion with everyone already covered over 8,000 words for some reason. I know some of you were looking forward to her meeting Kurapika after sooooo long, so did I make it awkward enough? Not gonna to lie, I felt pretty awkward writing it. These chapters are chill so far, I think they'll remain this way for one or two more chapters.

Also, I need to go and continue editing some of the chapters of the prequel. I only have like 6 left to edit but I'm so lazy... Yeah, so just a heads up because I have the alternate between editing the old chapters from 2 years ago and writing new chapters for this sequel.

 **Review Corner:**

 **xXGemini14Xx:** Yaay, lol. I hope you're enjoying the sequel thus far!

 **SilverDewDrop:** She still has mixed feelings about Kurapika (she has mixed feelings for more than one reason, and I may reveal why in a few chapters, if not then in the 3rd arc in more depth). I was planning on making some awkwardness remain between Gon, Killua and Kou, because even in the canon series Gon and Killua acted happy in front of each other and we only saw a glimpse of how they truly felt once they turned their backs to each other after saying goodbye. But I figured now that they're older they'd have a much better approach dealing with it.

I decided not to add too much of Killua in here, his decision on joining the mission was last minute as mentioned. In a way this is an introduction to the story just like the previous chapter. And Kurapika was always in that little bracket thing, even in the prequel lol. I'm not really going to spoil what kind of feelings are going on within that bracket because relationships do take long to develop, especially if it's between people who aren't very keen on being in a romantic relationship (Kou, Killua and Kurapika are in that category basically). I'm basically being that one person who's trying to create a believable love line but it's probably going to end all over the place...

 **Guest:** I know how to spell 'continued'. 'Kountinued' is a pun.

 **WormwoodSand31033:** I think Kou was pretty reluctant on doing a lot of things even in the prequel. If it wasn't for Gon she wouldn't even have participated in the Chimera ant mission, let alone done half the things she did during their journey. If it wasn't for him the story would probably only have around 10 chapters. As you mentioned, Gon does balance her out. Not even Killua could convince her to change her mind after the initial NGL mission although he went as far as insulting her. I introduced her as someone who pretty much only had one goal in mind at the very beginning, and since Gon was already a precursor to convince the whole gang to get involved in something, I didn't feel the need to make their characters overlap in that aspect.

Also, I checked out the Hunter x Hunter timeline on Reddit and I found it quite helpful. I do have a pretty good idea of the months and years most events occurred in, but there were a lot of things related to the Dark Continent I didn't know about. I'm not including the Dark Continent in the sequel because it still is unexplored territory, but I do think the page will prove to be extremely useful in the future. Thanks for the suggestion!

 **havanatitiana:** They met, kinda. There will be more interactions between the characters in the next chapter because I decided to stop the chapter where I felt like it was most appropriate.

 **Sharina Antigua:** It's really cool to hear that you've been using this fanfic to de-stress. I think of writing as a stress reliever, and I can relate how relaxing it is to find something you could use to de-stress.

 **randomfics29:** Ding, ding, ding! You made a pretty good guess about the first arc of the sequel. She met Gon and Killua, and the whole team is reunited for the first time since the Phantom Troupe arc. And you were right about the plot too, there's nothing about the Dark Continent because it takes place two years later.


	3. Shattered Ambitions & Newborn Dreams

**Chapter Three:**

 _Shattered Ambitions & Newborn Dreams_  
 _..._

The briefing took a little less than an hour, and both Kurapika and Leorio managed to cover everything asked by their client. Once everyone, even Himeko agreed to go along, Leorio handed out application forms for the Academy for them to fill in.

"I'd appreciate it if you can all hand them in to me today," Kurapika announced, before revealing that the process of applying to the school was going to be a lot more complicated than they initially thought. Though all of them had some doubts on how the mission was laid out, they trusted the two Zodiac members to have everything planned. "We can easily be looked up on the Hunter website using a license, and if someone from the school were to suspect us we would immediately get caught. Therefore, for the sake of this assignments we all have to change our names. If not our full names, I'd appreciate it if you could change your surname." Kurapika then scanned the room, his eyes landing on Killua, Himeko and Gon. "There are a couple of us who have unique, yet well-known surnames. Killua's name for example would be the most obvious, but there are members among the community who would easily recognise the name Freeccs, and even Inoue."

"We do need to create fake IDs for you all to send to the school along with the applications, that's why we need the forms done by today." Leorio explained, before showing the two different forms to the group. "I handed the High School form to Gon, Kou and Killua. The College form is a little longer, and requires you to choose a course you're interested in."

To make the filling in process easier, Himeko moved to sit beside Gon on the opposite end of the table as they were filling out the same form anyway. The room was then slowly filled with an air of concentration, and in the silence only the ballpoint pens could be heard moving smoothly across their papers. Although Leorio had already started his application prior to their arrival, he was still stuck with an half-empty form left to fill in. Kurapika on the other hand used a small paperclip to attach his photocopied ID and all other relevant documents to his completed form.

But ten minutes later, Gon only filled in his first name and found himself stuck on what to write for his surname. Out of sheer curiosity, he looked up and around the table to find that everybody else had already moved past that stage. His eyes finally landed on Leorio, who found himself chewing on the cap of the already chewed up pen.

"Hey, Leorio. You've filled in the name section already, right?" Leorio's concentration bubble was the first to pop after being addressed directly by the younger boy. While most of the others were still preoccupied doing their own work, they still decided to lend an ear to what Gon was about to ask. "What did you pick as your name?" His question however ended up gaining the curiosity of most of his fellow team mates, some who decided to put down their pens to listen to his answer.

"My surname is Paradinight, so I thought something with 'night' would be nice. I thought Nightingale would be fitting as a surname."

As if it rung a bell, Killua rubbed his chin and went into deep thoughts. "Nightingale, Nightingale," he mumbled to himself, as if he had heard that name before. No, he was sure he had heard it in the past but grew frustrated that he couldn't recall when and where.

"Florence Nightingale," Himeko gave him the answer to his riddle. "She was a nurse during the 1800's. You can pretty much consider her the mother of modern nursing, so it's quite a fitting name for a med school student to pick.

Feeling content with her flattery, Leorio rubbed his nose as his pinkish hue appeared on his embarrassed, tan cheeks. "I can always count on you to pick up on these things."

Gon couldn't help but look amazed and let out a couple of _"ooh's"_ in approval to show how impressed he was. It wasn't just him, everyone else was blown away too seeing how he went to choose a name with meaning rather than something with no significance to him. He then went on to look at the other Zodiac member, who had set his filled form aside and was quietly typing away on his laptop, answering a couple of work related e-mails in the midst of their conversation.

"What about you, Kurapika?"

His slender fingers momentarily stopped dancing across the keyboard, before he decided to remove them completely from his laptop. As if he was already thoroughly exhausted from this mission, his shoulders relaxed and he shut his laptop. The e-mail wasn't important, he still had a lot of time to reply to it. As someone who was up to date with even the mountains of work, he just decided to do it to pass time.

"Kurapika Scarlett," he answered earnestly, and maybe the thought of being surrounded by all these familiar people made him relax more.

Even after these years, Gon still had the same big eyes he had when they first met on the ship to the exam site, and those very eyes questioned him. At times it was an innocent desire for knowledge, but depending on the situation Kurapika found it quite meddlesome. Regardless, there has always been a comfort when surrounded by these people that allowed him to be more honest with both them and himself. A warmth he physically isolated himself from for the sake of his clan, but his heart couldn't help but hunger for it.

"To be honest, within the Kurta clan nobody had a last name. We are all considered children of the Kurta, therefore I always went by the name Kurapika only. My father's first name would be the closest thing I would've had to a surname."

When it came to his clan, Kurapika had always been truthful, even when they first met. He was the type to be wary of others, but that didn't stop him from talking about the Kurta clan with pride, unlike Himeko and Killua who only revealed their true identities later on. It wasn't until he got closer to the Phantom Troupe that he stopped contacting his friends. The reason for his detached behaviour made sense to him, and he was fine being to only one to understand this. The grave he began to dig was only big enough for the Phantom Troupe and himself, but if he wasn't careful he would end up with space to fit more than he desired. Kurapika knew what it felt like to lose loved ones, and there was still part of him that cherished his friends as he did in the past. It was this thought that kept chasing him away from his friends, and the fear of losing them confined him out of everyone's reach.

Even to this day, the trust remained as he didn't hesitate to tell them more about his clan.

"Scarlett makes sense!" Gon exclaimed, satisfied that he could catch the connection behind the choice in name, unlike Leorio's. Kurapika's lips couldn't help but tug upwards to form a gentle smile in response, seeing how seriously Gon was thinking about such a menial task. After glancing at his same aged friends who were sitting on either side of him, and Toshiro and Natsume who were sat opposite him, Gon began to think seriously about his name.

It wasn't until another ten minutes later that Gon looked up again, noticing that everyone had something filled in. Himeko was already way past the personal information section and was on the next page. Natsume and Toshiro looked through a pamphlet to choose a course they'll be interested in. Killua was also steadily moving along with no problems.

"What did everyone pick then?" Based on his voice, Gon certainly wasn't too satisfied with his own choice. If only Mito got married, he might have been able to use hers, but his single aunt shared the same surname as him. Hearing this, Himeko who was in the middle of writing a full essay in the personal statement section, highlighting her skills, ambitions and experiences stopped and put her ballpoint pen down. Seeing her flip the paper around, everyone momentarily stopped what they were doing to hear what she came up with. Their seemingly long wait was filled with anticipation.

"Himeko Onoue." It took some time for them to process and absorb their choice of the most unoriginal name ever, and their expecting looks were quickly replaced by disappointed ones. "I'll have you know that Onoue is a real name I didn't make up."

"The I and the O are right next to each other on the keyboard," Toshiro pointed out, "A simple typo would accidentally reveal your real identity."

"He's right, think of something else! Don't be so goddamn lazy!" It sounded as if Leorio was ordering her around, and she could only click her tongue at him in annoyance and rub out the name section she thankfully wrote in pencil. "Don't click your tongue at me!"

Gon took a moment to look at his own sheet, before his smile turned to one that was a little more content with his own choice. It was a tad bit more creative than her's, where she only bothered to replace a single letter. He held up his own form to show it off, his choice also written in pencil after seeing his friend do it that way.

"Gon Freaks," he presented proudly. "I used Freaks instead of Freeccs."

Leorio was the first to reject his idea. "No!"

"Freaks and Freeccs are pronounced the same way," Kurapika pointed out. "If anyone has been to the election venue two years ago they would've seen both Gon and his father there. You can't make things more obvious than they are." Gon hung his head in disappointment, taking the rubber from Himeko's side and rubbing the surname section. Hearing a quiet snicker coming from Killua, he looked up at him with challenging eyes.

"What did you write?" He asked, noticing that the blank space for his last name had been filled in now. But recognising the familiar look in Killua's eyes, his peers knew that he had nothing but mischief in mind.

But before he had a chance to finish spelling out his idea, he was cut off by Kurapika who yelled, "Try again!" However, that didn't stop Killua from going into a laughing fit, with Natsume joining in as he found it equally as amusing.

"Ha ha ha, very clever," Himeko retorted sarcastically, "Replacing the 'y' with an 'i'. Sounds like a joke only a twelve year old would make."

"Shut it, Onoue." He responded in a similar snarky manner, before letting out a deep sigh to recover from all the laughter. "Either way, it was a joke. I'm sticking to Killua Silva. It's my dad's first name, and not that uncommon of a surname." His real choice didn't suffer any critique, and he was left with Kurapika's seal of approval. As easy as it sounded, both Gon and Himeko tried it out, only to end up disappointed with the outcomes of 'Himeko Hachirou', which still didn't sound as bad as 'Gon Ging'.

It wasn't until encountering a loop hole that Himeko was able to come up with her own choice. As she lived at and put down the same address as Toshiro and Natsume, it would be suspicious for all three to apply despite being complete strangers. She put her name down as 'Kou Maeda', with one of the two boys sharing the same surname as her and going as 'Toshiro Maeda'. Although they didn't look very alike, they were still mistaken as siblings a few times in the past. Natsume on the other hand decided to go by 'Natsume Matsumoto', in the guise as a distant cousin living with these so-called siblings. With some deciding on a name on an impulse like 'Kou Maeda', and others putting much more thought into it like 'Leorio Nightingale', Gon was left to stare at the sheet with the empty name section in front of him, not knowing what to write.

The form filling session continued with some having more trouble than others. Himeko was the first to finish, and both Kurapika and Leorio read through it to make sure it was good enough to send off. She then helped both Gon and Killua, who were both stuck on what to write for the personal statement section. Although she herself didn't have many aspirations of her own and was just going with the flow, she found it much easier to improvise based on the skills she learnt as a child, ranging from playing the koto to ikebana. Though Killua learnt a lot as a child too, he couldn't possibly list any of those in his application form. Gon on the other hand had a long list of aspirations, but not much he could write as skills apart from the things he learnt growing up on Whale island. However, Kurapika insisted that those were fairly unique and interesting skills to possess and just encouraged him to work on his wording.

The college application forms on the other hand were much longer, with Natsume and Toshiro being stuck on the course they wanted to choose. Leorio had his eyes on the school for quite some time now and was delighted to get an opportunity to join himself without having to pay the tuition fees, even if it was a mission. The college section of the school taught a special course called 'Nen in Medicine', which as the name suggested involved uses of _Nen_ in the advancement of medicine, as well as any techniques from the past. However, you needed at least some medical knowledge to enrol which they would test before accepting students. Leorio already possessed the right amount of medical knowledge after three years in medical school.

When asked by Natsume, he was pleased in his sudden interest in something he had been so passionate about for so long. The excitement in his eyes looked almost like that of a child as he began to explain just what the Science Department in the Hunter Association has taught him over the years.

"My _Nen_ isn't very suitable for fighting," he confessed hanging his head slightly low. He knew just how much he worked on it, but he was surrounded by individuals who had the strength to take on a large crowd. But hearing those words, Killua was suddenly reminded of something.

"Not suitable for fighting my ass, you can pack a good punch if you want to." Although none of them were there in person, most of them saw the video footage of Leorio punching Ging at the election hall after Gon's hospitalisation. All he could do was sheepishly rub the back of his neck, remembering the events that led him to become a Zodiac member. He didn't doubt the fact that Ging let him punch him, but there was something very satisfying about it the moment he chose to do it.

There was no denying that Leorio had a strong sense of justice, and for a fact it was stronger than that of everyone else in the room. But thinking back, he never truly recalled a moment where he physically fought someone like the rest. Due to his studies, he also postponed his _Nen_ training until he began to take it more seriously fairly recently.

"But you wanted to become a doctor since the very beginning." Gon's words served as a reminder to his now short-lived hesitation, and he felt more comfortable talking to the rest as an equal. Gon was right, his dream was to become a doctor, travel the world and help the sick without expecting anything in return. Back then it felt like a noble dream everyone encouraged him to follow, but it wasn't until his years in medical school that he began to encounter dead ends in his path.

"I thought it was a fine dream to follow at first. Curing the curable and treating the incurable, I didn't really think about the money needed to fulfil my dream after graduating. I only ever thought about the money a patient had to spend because I've been in that position before."

It wasn't the loss of a friend to an incurable disease that affected him, but the death of a friend due to a curable illness that hit Leorio so hard. _"Money runs the world",_ it was something Leorio would say, something that angered Kurapika and annoyed Killua and Himeko in the past. But they could never deny the truth behind his words.

"The amount of medical equipment a hospital has is unimaginable, even if I become a doctor I'd never be able to afford all of that. Even if I didn't travel the world and chose to open a small practice for patients to come and go, I could never fit big machines in a small establishment. I decided that I should craft my _Nen_ specifically for this, so I wouldn't have to think about paying or even carrying around special equipment."

Kurapika already knew parts of it, but since he was in a different department this was the first time Leorio told even him about it. Everybody in the room looked utterly amazed by this, with Gon being the first one to blurt out what was on everyone's minds. "That's awesome! You're cooler than a real doctor, you're like a super doctor."

"Super doctor," Leorio chuckled, finding it somewhat amusing himself. "I like the sound of that."

"So, you can use your _Nen_ to do scans and stuff?" Killua asked, still trying to wrap his head around the idea.

"I guess it's possible for an Emitter to release sound waves at different frequencies," Himeko explained. "Similarly, you can change wavelengths and frequencies of EM waves to produce different EMR's."

"Then he can use his ability for radiation therapy too?"

"Possibly."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Gon chimed in. "What if Leorio discovers the cure for cancer?!"

"The theory sounds pretty straightforward, but I bet it's a lot of effort." Natsume groaned just imagining all the work that went into it. Leorio's certainly did a good job at initiating a conversation, and seeing how excited everyone was getting at the idea of it made him feel a sense of pride. He cleared his throat, cutting the talk short.

"I still have a long way to go!" He reminded the rest, and although he still seemed far off from discovering something that could change the world, he was still on the right path. "I'm not sure how useful this course will be, but I'm sure I'll get some good ideas."

Gon then turned to Kurapika, hoping he'd tell them what he had in mind. He looked hesitant to answer at first, but it wouldn't change the fact that they'd find out sooner or later.

"My first choice is the _'Advanced Principles of Nen B'_ class." Natsume and Toshiro were the only pair with a pamphlet of the courses descriptions in front of them, so they naturally searched for the long course name and read through it before Kurapika could even continue.

Unlike class A, class B focused more on the studies of forbidden techniques people used in the past, _Nen_ exorcisms, Vows and limitations as well as many other things that normal _Nen_ teachers would never teach their students. Kurapika continued to explain how _Nen_ had a counterpart called _Dow,_ both being fairly similar to the concept of Yin and Yang. Class B focused more on the Yin, a power created with nothing but pure vengeance in mind.

"It has a less than one percent acceptance rate," Natsume pointed out, hoping that he was aware of his position and importance in the mission. "This is the toughest course in the Academy."

"You're correct. Not many people graduate from the course, let along manage to get accepted into it." But if Kurapika wanted something, he would do anything to get hold of it. If he truly wanted to learn more about this self-destructive power, there was nothing in his way to stop him from achieving his goal.

Even Leorio grew quiet, possibly having tried to convince him to change his choice to class A. Thinking back, no one in the room had heard of the word _'Dow'_ before. Bisky, Wing and Sensei, none of them even uttered the word in front of them, although they were sure their teachers were well aware of it.

For just a moment, Gon remembered when he himself tapped into forbidden territory. When he asked Ging about it, even he was being fairly vague about what resulted in his sudden transformation. Whatever ability he used on Neferpitou was probably part of _Dow_ , or some kind of forbidden technique created with the sole purpose to destroy something. He lacked certain bits of his memory from back then, but still the very thought of this technique frightened even him.

It wasn't just Gon, but even the _Vows and Limitations_ Kurapika, Himeko and Natsume used in the past resulted from either greed, impatience or impulsiveness. It was daily and diligent training that made them grow so strong, but it was then when they realised that there was much more to _Nen_ than they first thought.

"Wouldn't it be better to apply to the A class then?" With her question, everyone's eyes naturally moved towards Himeko. She didn't put much thought before stating her opinion, she knew everyone else felt the same way as her but just didn't choose to ask. Although most of them realised that he may have an ulterior motive for leading the mission, only she decided to question him on it. Leorio couldn't as he had already tried, while Gon who felt the same urge to convince him as the rest of them just didn't feel like it was his place to do so, after possibly using the same ability they were trying to stop Kurapika from using.

Of course, even Kurapika's began to stare, waiting for her to continue convincing him to choose something different. This wasn't anything he wasn't used to in the past; most of his friends were quite opinionated and outspoken. He remembered Himeko being an introverted girl who wasn't afraid to speak up if she felt the need to. It wasn't necessarily a bad trait, he thought of it as fitting for the awful world they were living in. Although back then it was more of her naivety that caused her to talk back when she felt wronged. But Himeko who was sure she would feel comfortable around her peers found herself feeling intimidated by his gaze.

"I don't mean to undermine your skills, the acceptance rate is less than one percent but it's technically not zero. If you put your mind to it, I'm sure you'll get in." Everything that came out of her mouth started sounding like an excuse, with her voice progressively becoming quieter as she realised just that. "But there is a chance that you won't get accepted at all. Wouldn't it be wiser to just go with something easier?"

"You're right, but as you said if I put my mind to it I know I'll get in." Although his answer didn't sound humble, Kurapika wasn't bragging. He was just confident. "Even if I don't get into my first choice, based on my results they'll put me into class A."

A very Kurapika-esque answer. No one doubted the fact that he'd have a back-up plan prepared. _'Advanced Principles of Nen A'_ was the biggest and most readily chosen course, something the school was quite well known for. So, in the end no one could talk him out of it, and the conversation continued with the older members in the group discussing the rest of the courses.

After some time, Toshiro decided to stick to something simple and put _'Advanced Principles of Nen A'_ as his first choice. The course pretty much covered the main principles in more detail, focusing on the effects of individuality on _Nen_. Students from this class were also expected to teach younger students during _Nen_ classes. This enabled them to observe various students and their _Hatsu's_ and it would also help teachers who have larger classes. Although Himeko was the only person he had ever taught before, that itself was considered more challenging than teaching a whole class of obedient children.

Natsume on the other hand chose a course open to only Transmuters and Conjurers which explored techniques similar to alchemy. Unlike Toshiro's choice, this was something he chose out of personal interest. The entrance exams involved knowledge on mainly chemistry, both organic and inorganic, as well as physics and some biology. Maths was also a requirement as it went hand in hand with the scientific fields. It differed from traditional alchemy used in the past that was thought of as being more philosophical and required thorough knowledge of the basics of _Nen_.

Having finished the more difficult part of the form, the rest was done fairly easily. It took around two hours for them to be done and have everything double checked by the team leaders. Once they got their okay's, they were done with step one.

"Although you're all going under different names, we are going to ask the Hunter Association to restrict the people who can view your profiles on the Hunter website to a selected few." Kurapika explained the precautions they had to take. "I've had a look at the pictures to send for the IDs, but I can only use Natsume's and Toshiro's. Gon, Kou and Killua have to update their pictures on the profile, and we can use the same images for their fake IDs."

Having had a look at their profiles, they realised that the youngest trio didn't change their pictures after passing the exam. All pictures were taken by Beans, Himeko's and Gon's were taken over three and a half years ago after they passed, while Killua's was taken a year later after he retook the exam. Leorio had a good laugh at their old images, noting how smug Killua looked, or how Himeko looked genuinely annoyed after going through hell for a week. In the end, he retook their pictures in front of the white wall before sending them off. While he was uploading them from his camera to his laptop to be sent off, Kurapika continued cautioning them about their behaviour during the mission.

"The last topic is the entrance exams. Of course they'll test our _Nen_ abilities, but you will have to hold back. Most students in the Academy can be considered beginners who have just started to develop their _Hatsu's_ , especially the High schoolers. I strongly advise you all not to draw too much attention to yourselves."

Gon raised his hand once he finished speaking, "Question!"

"Yes, Gon."

"If they're going to test our _Nen_ , are they going to give us written tests too?"

"Of course, it will have an entrance exam just like any other private school." Kurapika answered, to which Gon groaned in disappointment. "It will take place in a weeks time, so I hope you'll all try your best at studying." And hearing the nearing date of the examination, Gon was the one burying his head in his hands this time.

"Don't worry Gon, we can always copy from Kou if we don't know the answers. We just have to practice cheating during the week."

"Sorry to disappoint you guys, but the cut-off point in that country is September." Leorio rained on their parade. "So anyone born after September will academically be a year younger."

"No offence, but even if we were in the same year I wouldn't let you copy me."

To this Killua protested, "But we're supposed to be friends, what else are friends for?"

"I'm doing this because I'm your friend. You won't learn anything if you just copy off me. I don't want you guys to remain apes forever, you guys have to evolve sooner or later."

"'You won't learn anything if you just copy off me'" Killua repeated in a slightly high-pitched tone to mock her. "I'm only doing this to help you."

"See, that's something only an ape or a monkey would do."

But the conversation about Himeko's age led even further, causing Leorio to ask, "That reminds me, wasn't Kou born at the end of December?"

"Third week of December," Toshiro answered. "It's the only day we get decent food at the dojo."

"If she was born just two weeks late she wouldn't have been able to take the exam with you guys." Natsume added. "She wouldn't be sitting in this room with us right now either." His words set off a thought of Himeko not being old enough to take the exam with everyone else and having to take it the following year. Even Himeko thought of that possibility.

Leorio put his hands together and offered a small prayer out of gratitude. "Let's all take a moment to thank Kou's mum for pushing her out in time."

"Please don't thank my mother for such things."

"Oh!" Gon seemed to have remembered something important. "But if she was too young to take the exam with us, then she might've taken it with Killua the following year."

"No offence, but I wouldn't have had a reason to go easy on her. I would've knocked her out just like everyone else."

"Go to hell, Killua!"

Despite their constant side-tracking, Kurapika eventually managed to wrap up the meeting and allowed everyone to leave, apart from Leorio who still had work to submit to the Chairman. However, he reminded them to take the upcoming examination seriously and study in their spare time. With only Kurapika and Leorio preoccupied with work, the others began to discuss what they could do next.

Natsume was the first to announce his plans for that day, "I don't care what you guys do, it's too hot today I'm taking a nap!" He let out a loud yawn, before stretching his arms and legs to get rid of the stiff feeling. Collecting his luggage, he was left the meeting room to pick up a room key at the reception. When Toshiro was asked, he just informed everyone that there were a couple of stores he didn't have enough time to check out earlier, so he just wanted to do some exploring on his own.

Gon naturally included Killua and Himeko in his plan to show them around the island and all the secret spots only he knew about. While Killua didn't exactly mind, Himeko spent a moment to think of an excuse to stay behind and laze around in her room.

"You know what, I'm kind of feeling jet lagged after that long journey." The excuses just flowed out of her mouth as if lying was second nature to her. She then backed her chair up and stood up, ready to walk out of the meeting room. "Come to think of it, I still have to finish the book I started reading."

But before she could even take a step past them, she was stopped in her tracks by someone tugging her shirt from behind. Preparing to shout at Killua, she turned around and was slightly bewildered to see that it was actually Gon stopping her from moving any further.

"Just to let you know, these clothes aren't cheap Gon!"

"Then it might be smart to change into something you don't mind getting dirty before coming along with us. You too Killua, you won't believe how big Kon's cub has gotten!"

"You mean the foxbear cub we saved during my last visit?"

"Yeah, come on. Let's go! I promised Aunt Mito to get home for lunch," he said, rushing them out of the room before looking back at the pair who remained inside. "Kurapika, Leorio, you two should come to my place after you're done. Bring Natsu and Toshi with you."

While his friends picked out clothes and any other essentials they needed to get changed out of their bags, Gon waited impatiently. His pushiness, though they had gotten used to it by now felt rather nostalgic, as if they were still the same twelve year old children running around and creating havoc. Ignoring Leorio's grumbling in the background, the trio began to make their way out discussing their schedule for the day. But before they walked out of the door, their excited chatter was cut short.

"Kou, can you stay behind for a minute?" His eyes still on the bright laptop screen, Kurapika called her back in. Even Leorio stopped whatever he was doing to look up and wonder what this was about. When looking back up, she was met with Gon and Killua's questioning gazes, who shared the same thought. Nonetheless, she told them to go ahead and walked back closer to the desk after closing the room's door.

"Is something wrong?" She sounded quite worried, asking herself what she might have done wrong. Whatever he wanted to discuss involved only her, and it was never that case. As he approached her, she noticed that he didn't look as tall as she remembered him to be. But it was just that she herself had gotten quite tall over the years. She found it surprising when he pointed it out.

"You've gotten taller." It a mere observation, however, that didn't prevent her from becoming slightly flustered all of the sudden.

"Huh?" As she was taken aback by his words, she tried to think of something she could respond with. "We haven't seen each other in quite a few years, so it's pretty natural for me to look a little different." Though it sounded like a normal response, her over-analytical mind blew it out of proportions, making her think it came out sounding offensive. "Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to be rude or anything. I was just providing a reasonable explanation for the observation you made."

Over his shoulders, she could see Leorio frantically waving his arms in an attempt to catch her attention and calm her down.

"No, it's quite alright. There's nothing to apologise over for being honest."

"Then it shouldn't be wrong for me to say I'm disappointed either." This time, there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice, but Kurapika didn't look too surprised by her snide remark. Leorio on the other hand sunk into his chair, predicting that this conversation might take a nasty turn. "No one said anything, but nothing changes the fact that we worry."

"I plan on cooperating with anything, anything besides _that._ I told Leorio the exact same thing before. My enemies should not be yours."

But there was something more crucial to why Kurapika continued to roam as a lone wolf. Allowing his enemy to catch a glimpse of his weakness was his first mistake. Not being able to fully disregard his emotions was his second. If he went after the Phantom Troupe as an empty shell, being void of any kinds of emotions other than pure rage would've made everything much easier. The more people that he allowed to get involved, the more his plans crumbled apart. His friends made him weak.

But despite what Kurapika said, even he knew very well that it was too late to tell them not to associate themselves with the Phantom Troupe. The villains already knew their faces and their relationship with Kurapika. If they were to cross paths, regardless of the situation, Kurapika couldn't predict a peaceful turnout.

Nonetheless, despite what the three individuals were thinking the room fell into complete silence. That was the end of that discussing, so Kurapika reached into his blazer's inner pocket to fish something out, before presenting the familiar item to her in his palm. The medium sized sapphire stone reflected the sunlight seeping in through the blinds and winked at her.

"It's yours!" He waited for her to take it off him, but instead she looked as if she was in a daze. The piece of jewellery she parted with during her last trip in Yorkshin found itself back to her through the blond man. She thought she'd never see it again, and that it was gone for good, so she questioned just how he managed to get his hands on it. Perhaps he already knew what she was thinking, so he went on to clear her doubts. "I came across it at the underground auction last year, and I thought I recognised it. I double-checked with Leorio, and he said you sold one earring to get Gon some money for Greed Island."

The fact that it somehow found its way from one of the city's jewellery stores to the underground auction was a pretty overwhelming thought. Sure, it was one of a kind but in her eyes there was nothing special about it to be sold alongside all the unique items sold every year. Even so, there was a fear that crept up her spine when she imagined what that earring could've been used for if it ended up in the wrong hands.

After a moment of contemplation, she finally accepted. "Thank you. How much did you end up having to pay for it?"

"I feel like only a couple of people recognised the piece, so not many actually bid on the item. I was able to obtain it for four billion."

"Four billion?!" Her eyes widened as she recalled selling it for a quarter of the prize he bought it for. "I'm sorry, I can't afford to pay you back that much right now. At the moment I can probably manage to write you a cheque for fifty million, so do you mind if I pay you back in instalments?"

"I don't care about the money I spent on it, just don't do something thoughtless like this again in the future." His stern voice didn't come off as a surprise, but nonetheless she felt taken aback by it. He was right, the fondness she had for Gon led her to sell one in order to help him out. At the time it never truly occurred to her how valuable the item really was. It was something she had always worn, something that was just handed to her by her grandmother one day. She regretted giving it away so nonchalantly once she met some of her ancestors from the past in Yeddo and saw how hard they worked to build the Inoue clan to what it was now. But by then it was already too late for regret.

Himeko travelled back to Yorknew on several occasions afterwards and discovered that she couldn't find the earring at the store she sold it at. The store owner seemed to remember her as she was unusually young to own such a fine piece. But all he could do was offer a very vague description of the buyer, a man who probably looked like any other in the city that never slept. From then on she searched other jewellers and pawn shops in the city, hoping the mystery man tried to sell it for a higher price, but every time she would dream of finding at least one clue and went home with nothing.

Maybe it was the fact that Kurapika had hardly anything remaining from his clan that brought out this harsh tone. The very few items that remained in the world were the scarlet eyes that were in the possession of countless of shady individuals. From his point of view, Himeko was rather fortunate to own something that would bring her good memories from her family. It disappointed him that she was willing to give something so precious up so easily, and she acknowledged it. It was rather thoughtless of her, and she decided to keep the story of her restless search for the vanished earring to herself.

"I'm sorry."

Neither of them saw a point in her apologising. Kurapika had no obligations to buy the piece, yet he still decided to do so without second thought. Perhaps this was just his way of looking after his younger peer, hoping she didn't have to suffer the same fate as him. It wasn't an apology he was after, and she knew this. She knew that his scolding tone was just trying to make her acknowledge her mistake.

"But, thanks. I'll be more careful in the future."

When her fond gaze fell on the piece of jewellery, Kurapika understood that it wasn't just any earring to her. She looked overjoyed and also relieved, and though it was auctioned off for four billion jenny, to her this treasure was truly priceless. When no one was looking, a small smile eased his way onto his face, but not for too long.

"If you have something worth taking, there are countless of good-for-nothings who would want to do nothing more than rob you off it." He began to warn. "Money bears no real value. Sometimes you'll lose something more in order to get something back. In the end, you'll be left with nothing, not even your own sanity."

Himeko and Leorio listened carefully, wondering whether he was speaking from personal experience. Though the hunt for the Phantom Troupe was put on hold, he spent the years after their meet up in Yorkshin searching for his brethren's eyes. An uneasy feeling hit their guts as they could only begin to imagine what kind of people he had to deal with. Sensing her nervousness, he lightly patted her head.

"Don't put too much thought into it, let's do our best on the mission. I know you'll be an academic year younger than them, but I would appreciate it if you could get Gon and Killua to focus on their entrance exams this week and tutor them." His hands stopped, and he offered her a small smile in an attempt to change the subject before focusing his attention on the other member in the room. "Leorio, your pen stopped moving. Get back to work!"

"You don't know that, you had your back facing towards me!"

There was something about the two men's back and forth bickering that made her feel more at ease, something that could only make her think of the good old days before everyone got sucked into the world of Hunters and _Nen_. And knowing that they were going to get back to work, she decided to quietly exit the room after not being able to question his odd choice of words.

Once she was out, two pairs of curious eyes fell on her wanting to know what happened inside. Killua already changed into training clothes, fully aware of the fact that a tour around the island led by Gon would lead to a lot of sweat. Other than that, there was no unusual atmosphere between the pair, as if they had never been apart from each other to begin with.

"Your face is kinda red," Killua was the first to point out. It could've just been his usual teasing, and there was no way for her to actually confirm whether or not she was truly blushing or not. But in situations like this, she was almost too used to giving extremely good excuses.

"I paid good money for this blush, it better make me look like I'm healthy and glowy!"

"Kou, why did Kurapika hold you back?" Gon on the other hand did not beat around the bush and asked her straight up. In response, she showed them the earring in the palm of her hand and the boys looked up to see the matching pair on one of her ears. "Wait, didn't you sell one of them and give me the money to buy Greed Island?"

"And you failed to win the bid for Greed Island."

"We failed together, Killua. We worked as a team, remember?"

"Either way, how did he get his hands on them?"

"They were being auctioned off at the underground auction last year, so he bid on them after recognising them."

"At least no one shady managed to get their hands on them." Himeko and Gon nodded in agreement, not wanting to imagine that possibility. "That's all he said?"

"He also wanted me to tutor two orangutans so they pass the entrance exam."

"Don't compare us to monkeys!"

"Actually Killua, orangutans are great apes."

"I didn't think I'd live to see the day where Killua gets corrected by Gon."

"What was that supposed to mean?!"

While Himeko went to change into something more movable, the two boys proceeded to wait at the inn's entrance as they noticed how she still took her sweet time getting changed and made them wait. Eventually, she was ready and jogged down the stairs and seeing this, the boys let out relieved sighs. Her outfit was a lot more casual, and a wave of nostalgia hit them after seeing each other in work out gear. Unlike before, Himeko started to put in a lot more effort into her appearance and would opt out to wearing athleisure on certain occasions. Similarly, Killua found his closet containing less questionable outfits once he set out on his journey with Alluka. Needless to say, she insisted on buying him more fashionable pieces. Of course Gon began to stray from his iconic, yet questionable green shorts and jacket combo once he began to grow out of them, but unlike the other two he found a lot more comfort in wearing activewear on a daily basis.

With this being Himeko's first time visiting, Gon tried to make sure to leave a good impression of his home island on her. Killua who had already visited once found their trek up the grassy hills under the cloudless sky refreshing. Whale island wasn't very unique when compared to all the other rural areas they've visited. The air was just as crisp by the mountain in Kioto where Himeko lived, but Whale island had this liveliness to it that Kioto didn't.

Gon ended up taking the two to the forest where they rested by the lake. Technically, his journey to take the Hunter exam began at that lake where he caught monstrous fish so Mito would hold her end of the promise to let him set out on his adventure. Years before that, this was the forest where he met Kite and was caught the fascination surrounding the world of Hunters and finding his father. Killua and Himeko heard this story countless of times in the past, but as he watched Kon and her cub playing in the distance, he couldn't help but reminiscing.

"So, Kon is essentially like a little pet?" Himeko asked, her eyes still on the foxbear watching over her cub rolling around in the dirt.

Killua felt the need to correct her, "Little is an understatement..."

"I never thought of her as a pet, she's more like a friend. But speaking of pets, Aunt Mito never really let me keep any." He squinted his eyes as he looked up at the clear, blue sky. "When I was little I would always bring back stray dogs and cats, but she would always shout at me if I did. She told me that taking care of a life isn't the same as keeping stuffed toys, so we would often tend their injuries and take them to the animal shelter the next day. I guess now I understand what she meant, I'm not as mature as I thought I was."

His last sentence came out as a quiet mutter, a self-deprecating jab at himself. If perhaps one of the other two said the same thing, it wouldn't have been as surprising as hearing those words from Gon. What followed was his attempt to quickly change the subject.

"What about you two? I mean your families are both rich so it makes sense for you to have pets. Rich people always have pets in stories."

Himeko raised her brow, "And what kind of stories have you've been reading?"

"You know, the ones where they'd sit in a black chair petting their pet cats."

"That's more of a villain thing, not a rich people thing."

"No, I'm sure rich people do that too. Killua's family has a guard dog, those would be considered pets."

"If you mean Mike, he's not exactly a pet dog." Killua corrected him. "Dad has two dogs too, but I guess they can be considered hunting dogs rather than pet dogs." He continued to think when he finally let out an _"oh"_ after seemingly remembering something, attracting the interest of his two friends. "Never mind, I guess it's not that relevant."

"No, tell us! You can't leave us in the dark after that build up." Gon insisted on trying to get his words out, before turning to his friend whom he naturally thought would side with him. "Come on Kou, use your puppy eyes! They'll work!"

"I'd rather not. But _I am_ interested." As both his friends shared the interest and wished to get a glimpse into his past, he gave in and began to tell them the story.

"When I was around six I found a puppy just outside the testing gate and asked my dad if I could keep it. He agreed, and I named him Wolfie. It wasn't too soon after that Wolfie contracted a disease, and since I didn't know any better all I could do was go to my dad for advice. He said that there wasn't much I could do and the quickest way to help him out was well, to kill him." His story was unexpected, but not surprising. Judging by how killing became second nature to him, something like this wasn't out of the ordinary. Gon remembered a similar incident happening the last time he came to visit Whale island, where Killua wanted to kill Kon's cub to put it out of it's misery. But the cub, now much bigger was in sight playing around with his mother. "I hesitated, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where I could find a vet to take care of him. I trusted my dad and put an end to him."

Killua grew up in a very closed off circle, so something like that was considered quite normal by everyone around him. When he killed that puppy, neither his father, mother or any of his siblings blinked an eye. It was just him who felt like something was off about the situation. The environment he grew up in shaped him to doubt himself on numerous occasions in the past, making him believe that Wolfie wasn't the only one he would kill using his own hands. Being part of an assassination business, he was so desensitised to killing that he feared making and protecting his friends.

When Gon tried to change the heavy mood, Killua's story just went on to serve as the icing to Gon's story.

"What about you? If we are going by Gon's theory, then you should've had the rarest pets when you were still a spoilt little princess. So, Your Highness, did you own a Persian or Bengal cat, or were you more of a Samoyed dog kind of person."

"First of all Killua, if you call me 'Your Highness' one more time I'll knock your teeth out."

"I'm do apologise Your Excellence, but I wouldn't like that very much."

"And as for pets, we only had Koi fish in our pond." Hearing the truth out of her mouth mildly disappointed the two boys who were waiting for more. "They were just there for decoration I guess, and only the attendants would feed them."

"But Koi fish of all things..."

"Did you guys know that they can swim against strong currents? My grandfather told me that they symbolise quite a number of things such as perseverance, success, ambition, so overall it was good luck to have them in our presence. After he told me that, I insisted to feed them every day instead of the attendants. My cousins thought it was weird for me to do such odd jobs, so I guess I was one of the only people who was invested in them."

In the hopes that this may be a happier story, the pair of boys continued to listen to her.

"But one day I woke up and the pond was empty. I asked some of the attendants, and they were hesitant to tell me what happened to the fish. In the end, I never got a word out of them. My older brother told me that I overfed them, and they all died due to that. That's probably why no one wanted to tell me what happened."

Gon knitted his brows as if there was something wrong with what she said. "I'm not an expert, but I think it's strange for the fish to die all at once. There must be something else that caused them to die."

He was stating the obvious, even Himeko thought it was odd when she recalled that piece of memory. The attendants were careful not to overfeed them once she began to feed them too, so that was highly unlikely. If not a disease, then someone might have played a part in their death.

"Let's not dwell on this, this happened nearly ten years ago after all."

Sharing tales and laughter with each other made time pass by quite quickly, and eventually Gon invited them over for lunch at his place. He told Mito he'd be back by lunch time, which was obviously not going to happen as it was way past lunch time by now. Part of him feared what his aunt may have to say to him when he gets back home, so he hoped that seeing Killua again and introducing Himeko to her would somehow make her forget the fact that he's late for lunch.

His house was relatively small compared to what the other two were used to, and the only wow factor came from the unusual structure of it. But unlike what the Zoldyck and Inoue estates had to offer, Gon's house had a homely and welcoming feel to it. The building had two main floors; the ground floor consisted of a diner and bar Mito and Gon's grandmother ran, while the upper floor was their residence. Himeko read off a sign hanging from a tree branch.

 _"Green Tree Diner,"_ she was certain she heard that name earlier that day. _"Don't tell me... No, that would be way too convenient. Coincidences like that only happen in movies and books."_ Although she was ninety-nine percent sure, the one percent of her that was still hesitant watched Gon closely, as he too hesitated to open the door and step inside.

"Gon, why are you so late?!" Was the first thing the trio heard as the front door opened. "And look at you, you're covered in mud. I thought you went out for a job meeting, I'm sure it didn't involve you having to roll around in the dirt."

Gon held both his hands up in defence and backed up a couple of steps upon hearing the stern words. "I'm sorry, Aunt Mito. But I had a really good reason for being late today!"

"Oh, yeah? And what might that reason be?"

Gon stepped aside to reveal his friends, whom he somewhat managed to block out of view all along. Mito's gaze fell on Killua, whom she immediately recognised. He was much taller than she remembered, taller than even Gon who outgrew her before she realised. The bubbling anger within her finally began to disappear when she saw the young boy. She didn't know much about his past, and Gon never really talked about Killua's family and what they did for a living, but she sensed this vulnerability coming from him that evoked her maternal instincts. In Mito's eyes, Killua was just like Gon, and it gave her a sense of relief to have him back.

"Long time no see!" The toothy, boyish smile wasn't any different from when she last saw him, and Mito couldn't stop herself from giving him a welcoming hug.

"Welcome back." Killua found himself slightly taken back, but her motherly kindness made him relax and feel at home. This wasn't the Zoldyck estate where he constantly had to keep his guard up in front of certain family members, but a place where he unwind and just be himself. She released him not too soon after, and her gentle gaze began to observe how much the boy had grown. Mito then looked at the other companion Gon decided to bring along, only to realise that this wasn't a complete stranger either. Himeko looked rather dumbfounded after discovering that the young woman who she met at the market place earlier that day turned out to be Gon's aunt.

"Oh, you're the cat girl from this morning!" Mito exclaimed with the same surprise as the girl.

"Yes, it's nice to see you again."

"I didn't realise you were one of Gon's friends."

"It certainly is a small world, isn't it?"

Gon and Killua watched the somewhat awkward yet polite interactions between the pair, as they went back and forth talking about a cat incident neither of the boys seemed to recall. Gon took the initiative to break the ice between the two, knowing they'd get along just fine.

"Aunt Mito, this is Kou. Remember, I told you about her before, I met her at the Hunter exam just like I met Killua."

"I'm Himeko, sorry for not introducing myself earlier."

Mito already had this strange gut feeling that she had seen the girl before, but the name 'Kou' finally began to ring some bells. Gon showed her plenty of pictures after returning home from the Chimera ant incident, and Himeko was in quite a number of those pictures. She looked a little more mature, just like Killua, but she was still surprised at herself for not remembering.

After being bombarded by questions from Gon on how they knew each other, Mito began to tell him the story of how Himeko approached her in the morning with the notorious fish thief that was wanted in the market place. Gon then remembered the little cat whom he saw loitering around Mito's stall, and the story of how a mysterious city girl caught him. The mysterious foreigner turned out to be none other than Himeko, surprising both Gon and Killua at how she went out of her way to help a complete stranger.

The sound of a cat purring could be heard, interrupting their conversation, and as they looked down a white cat marched its way to Mito and began to purr and affectionately rub its body against her legs, trying to get her attention.

"It's the cat from earlier!" Gon exclaimed, as he seemed to immediately recognise the feline. "But what's it doing here?"

When it heard the sound of Gon's voice, the cat looked up and moved towards him. In response, Gon got on his knees and began to pet it's head before moving on to stroke it's chin, making it purr in satisfaction.

"I couldn't get rid of him, and he ended up following me home." Although there was some truth to her words, part of it was a lie. Mito remembered all those times when Gon brought home stray dogs and cats, wanting to take care of them. But she watched Gon grow more mature after he came home. She didn't know the details about the Chimera ant incident, and even if she were to ask she knew her nephew wouldn't tell her the whole truth. But she had this gut feeling that something happened, something that made the ever so selfish Gon want to change himself.

"What are we going to do with him now?" Gon questioned, only to be surprised by his aunt's response.

"He can stay here for some time."

"Really?!"

"But that aside, what did you three do? Aren't you all a little too old to be rolling around in the mud?" Changing the subject almost immediately, she tugged Himeko's hand and dragged her towards the stairs. "I'll get you cleaned up first."

Not knowing what was about to happen to her, the girl helplessly looked back hoping one of the two boys would save her, but the pair just happily waved her off. They were just glad that they weren't the first ones to get dragged away. Killua and Gon watched them disappear upstairs. With them gone, the boys decided to sit at one of the diner's tables and wait for the bathroom to be free.

"Looks like Aunt Mito hasn't changed one bit." Killua pointed out, to which his friend could only chuckle in return. "Where's your grandma?"

"She's probably still helping out at the market, she'll be back when we have to open the diner. But Aunt Mito looks really happy to see you again, she always asked me how you were doing when you were travelling with Alluka."

"Still an old worrywart!"

"Shh, she'll hear you!"

There was a comforting round of laughter between the two boys as they briefly talked about Mito and Gon's grandmother. It had been long since they were sat face to face and having a proper conversation, and both parties were glad that there was no lingering awkwardness. Learning from past mistakes was one thing, and completely trying to forget about them was another.

"How is Alluka doing?" Gon began to ask the questions this time around. "Kou and I were certain you wouldn't come because you were with Alluka, so it really surprised us when you entered the meeting room."

"Wow, you guys didn't want me around?"

"I never said that! I just didn't expect you to show your face."

For some reason, it took Killua a lot longer than expected to answer his questions. Gon wondered what might have happened, but Alluka was Killua's soft spot, and he didn't want to be insensitive and ask outright. All he could do was wait, hoping to hear a response from him. Eventually, Killua let out a heaved sigh.

"You're right, I wasn't going to come. I ignored the letter and e-mails. The fact that the meeting was on Whale island made me more hesitant, because if I left Alluka, she'd be alone again." He rarely show such vulnerability, but he knew it was alright to be so conflicted in front of his friends. And he knew that Gon was the last person who would ever judge him. "I think Alluka noticed that part of me wanted to see you lot again, and although she knew that she won't be able to come with me, she told me to go on the mission."

He began to recall her exact words on how overjoyed she was to have been able to travel with Killua and Nanika, and how Killua would feel just as happy as her if he was able to meet his friends again. His sister was quite a few years younger than him, but she was able to sense how much he enjoyed being with Gon and his other friends. Killua hardly ever looked so at ease at home, and the only time when he looked relaxed was when he was playing with her. That alone was able to tell her how much he treasured his friends, and how they were important to him as he was important to her.

Killua buried his face into his hands, and Gon could hear an unassertive voice coming from him. "Gon, did I do the right thing?" He was hardly ever so unsure of himself, he stripped his mask of confidence in front of Gon. "Was leaving Alluka behind at the Zoldyck estate really the right thing to do?"

"If Alluka didn't want you to leave, she would've told you. But if she saw you off with a smile, it meant that she was happy you spent all these months with her. And she knows you will return, just like you did last time."

The confidence Killua lacked came from Gon instead. Just as in the past, Gon's words were the light at the end of a dark tunnel. His words were the encouragement he needed to keep talking.

"When I went back home, I also spoke to my dad after a long time. Although I highly respect him and his skills as an assassin, I realised that there are certain things we don't see eye to eye with each other." After his last visit to the estate, he remembered how they parted on a bad note. Killua had to blackmail his father in order to get off the mountain with Alluka, but nonetheless, his father welcomed him back with open arms. "Since only I can use Alluka's ability now, I knew it was safe to leave her there without some of my family members trying to misuse her ability. But when we got back, Alluka was treated with the same amount of disdain as always. But she doesn't seem to mind it, and it hurts to see her having gotten used to that kind of environment."

Gon too remembered his younger sibling, and how she acted like a regular little girl around her older brother. Killua had a different side to him when he first met him, but Alluka didn't have that. She was simple, and an overall happy child. He could understand where Killua was coming from, it was hard to imagine that she was being isolated by the whole family and treated as something different.

"I want my parents to treat Alluka with at least half the respect and affection they show me, but she's probably locked inside her room again. It was the first time I stood face to face with my dad and opposed his views, but he said he won't do anything to change the way things are now. Apparently only I can change the way Alluka is being treated if I agree to take over the family business."

Gon eyes widened when he heard this. All this time, Killua only spoke highly of his father, but it sounded as if he was trying to blackmail his son into taking over the assassination business.

"He's playing dirty, it made me realise that I can't do anything by myself yet. I rebelled against my family, I was so sure that I could accomplish anything if I tried. But in the end, I still had to go crawling back because I couldn't take care of Alluka alone."

"You're not weak, Killua. You're strong because you know your weaknesses, and never brush them aside and decide to ignore them. In that regard, you're so much stronger than I am."

"I think I'm going to work towards saving enough money to buy a house for Alluka and I. If I can stand on my own feet, I won't have to rely on anyone."

"What about Kou, you're not going to live with her in the future?" Gon's abruptly turned the much too serious conversation into something less intense. Killua who was taken aback, turned to the stairway to make sure that no one heard his friend's teasing words.

He hissed in a whispering voice, "You idiot, this is why I never wanted to tell you this."

"You never did, I figured it out all by myself!" Gon said, before he grinned triumphantly. "And you never answered my question!"

"As if I'm going to answer that question."

"Ooooh, so I'll take that as a yes." One found the sudden turn in conversation much more amusing than the other, and Gon continued to tease his friend until they heard a footsteps rushing down the stairs. Although she took their friend with her, Mito ended up returning all by herself, looking way too excited about something.

"Good job Gon, I didn't expect you to bring a girl your age home." Knowing exactly what Mito tried to insinuate, Gon just gestured her to come closer and Killua watched him whisper something into his aunt's ear. He could almost guess what Gon told her based on the teasing expression she used to glance at him. She covered her mouth, shocked, pretending to have heard the gossip of the century. "Oh-ho, so that's how it is."

"I'd rather not have an old woman with no love life tease me about mine."

"What was that about me being old?"

"Don't worry, I got you an anti-aging cream. You'll look younger if you keep using it religiously."

The tense mood in the room vanished into thin air, and with Mito's presence, the two boys managed to feel more relaxed. As Killua and Mito continued to bicker over trivial things, Gon just watched in amusement. Eventually, another pair of feet came down down the flight of stairs, and Himeko peeked inside the room before entering. Upon seeing her, Mito's face brightened.

"My old clothes seem to fit you! I was worried they'd be too big on you." As the girl didn't have anything to wear after taking a shower, Mito rummaged through her closet, hoping to find something that may fit her. "They suit you quite well."

"Your old clothes?" Killua raised an eyebrow. "What, are they from the eighteenth century or something?"

Mito lightly pulled him by the ears. "I don't want to hear old jokes from someone who rolled in the mud like a five year old." She then turned her stern gaze towards her nephew. "The same applies to you, I want you two clean and ready to eat lunch in twenty minutes."

Despite the fact that both boys joked around with her just a moment ago, her strict words were enough to obediently send them up the stairs to take a shower. In the end, only Mito and Himeko were left behind, and Mito walked behind the bar counter.

"I'll get you something to drink." She said, before inviting the young girl to take a seat on one of the barstools at the counter. "Is orange juice alright?"

"Yeah, thanks." While seated, Himeko looked around the counter as Mito poured some juice into two glasses. She managed to spot a framed picture of a man, presumably in his early twenties on one of the shelves. "Is that Gon's father in the photo?"

Mito twisted the cap back onto the juice carton, before looking back at the picture frame, safely placed on the wooden shelf. She found it quite strange herself, there were so many times where her anger over his whereabouts was on the verge of boiling over, but she never had the heart to throw the photo away. She leaned her body weight onto the counter with a glass of orange juice in one hand, and continued to look over her shoulder at the single frame of her cousin.

"Yes, that's Ging. It was a picture taken when he last came to visit the island. Gon is beginning to resemble him quite a bit, huh?"

"To be honest, he looks a lot older and grumpier now." For some reason, her honesty truly entertained Mito. Realising that she may have overstepped her boundaries, Himeko quickly apologised. "Of course I only saw him on TV, I've never seen him in real life. I heard that the camera add a couple of pounds."

"No, it's quite alright. I appreciate honesty. I can see what Gon meant by you have no filter when you talk. I may not agree with some of the decisions he made in his life, but it relieves me to hear that he's doing well."

"I don't mean to be nosy, but when did you last see him?"

"When he came to this island with Gon as a baby. He left the island at eleven, and I was much younger than him, so I was happy to see that he returned at first. But he returned around ten years later with an infant in his arms. He never told us why he never returned home for the past ten years, and when asked who Gon's mother was, he never told us that either. He wanted to leave Gon with me and my mother, and then leave again. I found it far too irresponsible, even though I was only a little older than you, Gon and Killua at that point. Leaving behind your extended family members is one thing, but I could never accept the fact that he wanted to leave his own child behind."

"He never came back after that?"

"I went to court and got custody over Gon, and after that, Ging never came back. Although I once told Gon that both his parents passed away, part of me wanted Ging to return home to us. Seeing Gon wanting to leave around the same age Ging first left the island gave me a bad feeling. I didn't want to lose Gon either."

"I don't think Gon would ever want to leave you behind. I don't know much about Gon's father, but Gon always speaks really highly of you. I'm pretty sure that even when he was travelling with us, you and his grandmother were always in the back of his mind." Mito already knew this, but hearing it from Himeko's mouth was reassuring. "Gon is Gon, Ging is Ging. Although they're father and son, they're not the same person. You raised Gon, and he values all the things you taught him in life. You should be more confident in the way you raised him, especially as a single guardian."

Mito smiled as she sipped on her juice. "I realised, I was scared that Gon was going to leave me as well, but I've always looked at Gon as Ging. The fact that they looked alike didn't help at all. I think I began to calm down after Gon started sending me letters about his travels, and then there was also the time he brought home Killua. It made me remember that Gon is his own person."

Himeko watched as the she poured some milk into a plate for the stray cat she brought home. Mito gazed at it affectionately as it began to lick the plate clean.

"He's not a little boy anymore, and that makes me quite sad. But I can trust him to look after himself now, and he's made a lot of reliable friends during his journey. He's different from the little boy who would always bring home injured animals and plead with me to keep them." There was a sad tone in her voice, as she continued to shower the little white cat with kindness. "Looking after a life is not as easy as it seems, and it took me much longer than Gon to realise that. I was a naive teenager who was happy to win the legal battle over Gon against Ging. It didn't matter what it was, I was focused on the fact that I won against him. I was still bitter after all those years that he left us, and that brief happiness blinded me from all the responsibilities and hardships it takes to raise a child."

Not too soon after, the front door creaked opened and one of their regular customers peeked into the diner. After noticing that the store was practically empty, he quickly apologised. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were still closed."

Himeko watched as Mito stood back up, and though she wasn't sure, it seemed like she was wiping tears away from her eyes. Mito then walked towards the front door, and turned the 'Closed' sign around to 'Open'.

"Don't worry, I was just about to open up anyway. Please have a seat, I'll be right with you."

Once the diner was open, Mito didn't have much time to sit and talk anymore. While the boys were still taking a shower upstairs, Himeko decided to help out and take the customers' orders while Mito handled the preparation of food and drinks. Once Gon's grandmother joined, Mito's workload decreased. Seeing how Himeko was helping around in the busy shop, Gon and Killua decided to help out too and Mito was finally able to take a breather.

Eventually, Kurapika, Leorio, Toshiro and Natsume joined after being invited to have lunch by Gon. By then, the rush hour had already passed and the diner was much quieter. The rest of the day was then spent at Gon's place, with majority of them studying for the upcoming entrance exams under Kurapika's harsh supervision. In the evening, some of the older members of the group decided to end the day with some good old alcohol, as suggested by Leorio. Natsume was the only person to join him for a drink, along with Mito who had occasional sips of wine here and there. The others, including Kurapika and Toshiro opted out for non-alcoholic drinks, although they were over the legal age to drink.

Although Gon invited the team to stay the night, Kurapika was the first to point out that he didn't want to inconvenience Mito and his grandmother by having this many people staying over.

"Can't you stay over, Killua?" It didn't take much for him to agree, and Mito was happy to have him over. Gon then scanned for his next victim, only to realise that she made her way to the front door already.

"Well, I guess I'm calling it a night!"

"Kou, wait! There is something you should know before going back to the inn!" He stopped her before she could open the front door and exit. "That inn has a lot of rumours about it being haunted. I know someone, who knows someone, and they know someone who stayed at that inn and they heard footsteps from the attic, and children laughing at night."

 _"That's got to be the fakest story I've ever heard. There's no way in hell she's going to believe that!"_ But in contrast to Killua's thoughts, Himeko walked back to Gon's side and waved off everyone who was leaving for the night.

"Goodnight, I'll see you tomorrow when no ghost can hurt me." This almost felt like a deja-vu moment for Killua. If there was one thing she would believe in, it was a ridiculous story about some ghost. He recalled the time he had to stand guard outside the toilet for her at night because Palm told her a story about a so-called toilet paper ghost.

In the end, Kurapika and Natsume left, along with Toshiro who had to piggyback the knocked out Leorio back to the inn. Once they left, Gon escorted the pair to his room, and Kurapika was right. The room was way too small for all of them to fit.

"Okay, so we should decide who gets the bed by playing rock, paper, scissors!" Gon suggested, but before anyone could agree to it, they noticed how Himeko already made herself comfortable on the bed.

"I refuse to play rock, paper, scissors with Gon, that's like having a death wish!"

Killua could see where she was coming from, so he came up with an alternative suggestion. "We could draw straws or something."

"You should just offer the bed to the lady," she protested, leaving the two boys' eyes scanning through the room.

"Do you see any ladies in here, Gon?"

"Nope, I just see you and Kou." The debate over who got to sleep on the bed continued, until Killua proposed that they should just drag her off the bed. And the same debate over the bed ended after a threat from Himeko.

"Try to drag me off, and I'll rip both of your balls off." If Killua was able to cleanly rip out a fully grown man's heart, they knew she was capable of doing that. Himeko watched as the two boys set up a dark blue air mattress on the floor next to the bed. Mito then gave the pair two spare pillows and blankets, and after some small talk whilst lying down, the three eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, Himeko was the first to stir in her sleep. She opened her eyes slightly, and searched for her phone to check her time. She squinted her eyes due to her phone's bright screen, and read the time. It was around four o'clock in the morning, and when she checked up on her two friends, she was unsurprised to see them still fast asleep. Unlike her who fell asleep rather early, the boys were still talking for a good few hours.

After quietly getting out of bed and neatly folding up her blanket, she decided to leave the room to get some exercise. She changed into the same athletic wear she wore before the shower, after noticing that they were freshly washed and completely dry by now. As she went down the stairs, she noticed that Mito was also awake and probably preparing to head out to the market place.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Kou. I didn't wake you up by being too loud, did I?"

"No, I'm just used to waking up early. I thought I'd go out for a jog."

"What about Gon and Killua?"

"They're still asleep, I didn't want to wake them. They have quite a bit of studying to get through this week after all."

The two continued their conversation as Mito offered to prepare her a light breakfast before she went out. After they were done eating, Himeko went out for some morning training. She couldn't do much on an island without her katana or weights, so she chose to take the opportunity and the good weather to take a jog around the island as she still had a few hours until the other two would wake up. Once she returned, it was already six o'clock, and Mito and her mother already left to go to the market place. Instead, Gon was there to greet her.

"There you are, you should have told me you were going out to train!" There was sheer disappointment in his voice. After all, he never really trained together with her in the past, and he was just curious to see how much she improved over the years. "I would've joined you!"

"I'd like to enjoy some quality me time without you two hanging around me once in a while."

"Okay, then let's go out and do some more training. I want to see how much I improved since we last saw each other."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You wouldn't want to burn out all your energy in the morning when you have to battle your mortal enemy Mathematics later on today."

"Argh, do you really have to remind me so early in the morning?"

"Why are the two of you so loud in the morning?" They heard a loud yawn from a third individual who let himself into the conversation, and saw Killua groggily scratching his head. "Some of us are still jet lagged you know?"

"Since you are already awake, you can have breakfast with us!"

"What do you mean by 'us', Gon? I already had breakfast before I went out for a job." But despite their protest, the trio ended up sitting around the dining table in the kitchen and ate breakfast. During that time, Gon kept telling his two friends that there was a place he wanted them to come and visit with him, so after they were rushed by him to finish eating, he took them to his secret spot up on a hill.

"Not many people know about this place, but the sunrise over here looks really pretty." Gon was right, as they climbed the steep hill, they could already see a glimpse of the majestic sun rising from the horizon. He proudly presented the view to his friends, explaining that this was one of his favourite places on Whale island to stare out at the vast ocean. "Let's go, I'll show you a really good spot where you can see everything."

"I'll just take a couple of pictures, I'll join you two in a bit." Killua said, taking out his phone from his pocket and looking for the camera app.

"Don't take too long, we'll wait for you over there!"

With his phone in his hands, Killua watched the pair run off to Gon's 'secret spot' on his 'secret hill', and watch the already risen sun painting the sky a beautiful orange hue. He pointed the lens of his phone towards the sunrise, and took a couple of pictures of the breathtaking landscape to look back at in the future. As he continued to take pictures of the trees in the foreground, framing the clear blue sea and reddish sky, his viewfinder eventually landed on Gon and Himeko. Without second thought, he took another picture. But this time, the landscape wasn't the main focus of the picture. It was then when he was finally satisfied by the number of photos he took.

While he began to look through the photos in his gallery, he heard Himeko's impatient voice calling for him. "Are you done? How long does it take you to take a picture?" However, he didn't have anything witty to say in response. Instead, he approached his two friends with a content look on his friends.

"Did you take any good photos?" Gon questioned curiously, noticing how happy his friend looked.

"I did. One turned out particularly good, it's probably one of my favourite pictures I've ever taken."

"Show us!"

"No way, the beauty of it lies in it remaining mysterious."

"Killua is probably trying to hide all the dirty pics on his phone."

"Say what you want, I'm still not showing you a glimpse of it."

The two eventually gave up trying to convince him to show this awesome picture he apparently took, and their attempts of trying to get his phone off of him failed too. In the end, the trio sat in a line continuing to stare out at the sea. For most of them, Whale island was where their journey began, so looking at the small island from the tall hill felt quite significant. Suddenly, Gon stood up without warning and walked to the edge of the cliff.

He took a deep breath before shouting, "I'm going to become a great Hunter like Kite and Ging, and I'm going to explore every corner of this world!" Those weren't just empty words, he made an announcement to the world. An announcement that he was prepared to take on the world again. Once he was done, there was a complete silence surrounding them as both Himeko and Killua tried to digest what Gon just did. Only the sound of the seagulls could be heard in the distance, surprised by the obnoxiously loud voice.

It didn't take long for Killua to take his place. "I'm going to save up enough money to buy a house, no, an island for me and Alluka to live on. Then I'll create a law that no one from my family can step foot onto my island!"

Following his own announcement of his dream, he heard a quiet comment from the only person who was still sat down and dumbstruck by the two boys. "I don't think that's how the law works." But ignoring her logic, Gon just pulled her up on her feet and dragged her to the edge.

"Come on, you're next!" It almost sounded like he was demanding it out of her, but she could only shake her head.

Himeko stared at the rippling waves as she broke the silence, "I honestly don't know what I want to do."

Hearing this, Killua and Gon could only look at each other, wondering where all that determination to find her brother went. She had a whole list of things she wanted to do when they first met her, and it bothered the boys to see her so troubled. However, these negative feelings were all short-lived.

"Kou doesn't know what she's going to do, but whatever it is, it's going to be great." Gon used the same powerful, booming voice in her place, hoping it would bring her confidence back up. Somehow, as ridiculous as his words sounded, he managed to earn a small, yet amused giggle from her.

"It seriously sounds lame hearing it coming from you."

"Then how about you say it?"

The boys watched her shoulders rise as she took in a deep breath, before she repeated Gon's words. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but whatever it is, it's going to be great. Better than whatever Gon and Killua are going to do!"

"That sounded just as lame as when Gon first said it."

"I don't want to hear that from the guy who wants to buy an island."

The trio continued to look over Whale island some more, the place where new dreams were born for some, and old dreams died for others. With new found determination, everyone gave it their all for the entrance exams the following week, and after taking the exams, they all went separate ways again to their respective homes. Some were more afraid to hear back from the academy, while a couple of others were confident they passed. In the end, they all received their responses from the Nen Academy one week after the exam.

* * *

 **A/n:** Currently in the process of learning how to take hiatuses from Togashi.

 **Review Corner:**

 **SilverDewDrop:** Thank you, it really encourages me when someone compliments my writing style, although I personally don't think it's anything special. I guess who you ship her with is up to you. I do always say that when I write, I write without being biased towards one ship. I do know who she's going to end up with, but still until I get to that point I will try my best to be as unbiased as possible. I guess the best thing to do is following you intuition on who you feel like has the most comfortable relationship.

Also, it makes me happy to hear that she's getting more relatable. It tells me that I'm taking her character into the right direction.

 **Sin of Nutella:** Once again, I'm happy to hear that you're here for Kou. It lets me know that I'm doing good with her character development. I can never really get into stories where the romance just takes over the whole plot, and sometimes the authors just seem to forget the whole plot completely. There are so many instances where the plot is so creative and unique as well, and I have to give it up because the author decided to choose to put that all aside. Also, is it weird of me to say that I really like your username?

 **WormWoodSand31033:** Yep, first arc takes place in an Academy, but I will focus more on the high school section since the older members have to attend lectures, and that's basically just sitting down and listening to someone talk for 1/2 hours. I think all together there will be 4/5 arcs, with the first and second one being the least intense, and the third arc being the longest and most intense.

 **Sharina Antigua:** I've always wanted to try and squeeze those three into a school setting, but then again, they'll be attending a Nen school so it won't be just any regular school.

 **Candy-orange:** Yes! Finally!

 **randomfics29:** I personally find Kurapika to be the hardest character to write. He's very conflicted, and I feel like Togashi did a good job molding and developing him into this revenge driven character who also values his friends. Yeah, so I personally feel like I might mess up his character more than the others, but I'll try my best with him.

And Gon's going to occasionally tease Killua, but I added Natsu in this arc to be the persistent teaser. I did enjoy my holidays, thank you. Hope you enjoyed yours too!

 **Hayane-chan:** I hope you enjoyed this update, although I did make you guys wait really long for it.

 **Guest 1:** I was going to try and update once a month, but that didn't really work out since the last time I updated was after christmas... I will try to update as often as possible, but it depends on how difficult it is to write the chapter and how busy I am with uni stuff. I can't promise anything and I won't because I know I won't be able to keep a schedule, but I will try my best to update once a month. If that doesn't work out, I will do my best to update with quality chapters as often as I can.

 **Guest 2:** Thank you! ^^

 **Guest 3:** Thanks

 **Guest 4:** Thanks for leaving a review!

 **Mel:** *anxiously releasing chapter 3 hoping my readers don't kill me for being away for so long* either way, thanks for reading!

* * *

 **Wait, I'm not done yet!**

Did you guys ever wish you could personally step into this fanfic and slap Himeko across her face? Well, I'm happy to give you a chance at doing that!

The Nen Academy arc will require quite a lot of side/minor characters, and I feel like I won't be able to come up with that many quality characters all by myself. That's where you guys come in. You guys can help me out by creating a student for me to include at a few points in the story. This can also be a self-insert if you like. Just answer the questions below and either post them in the review section or you can personally PM them to me.

 **Name:** (first name is fine. Also, since this story will take place in the HxH equivalent to London, I would love to have a more diverse group of characters. Your character does not have to have a Japanese name since this arc isn't set in 'Nippon' aka the HxH equivalent of Japan.)

 **Gender:** Male/Female (I would love a variety of characters. If I don't get many, I don't mind if you guys make a male and a female character each)

 **Age/Class:** (Note that the characters that will appear more frequently in the story will be in Himeko's, Gon's and Killua's classes. Anyone who's not in their class will still appear here and there, for example if they share a class with Kurapika etc.)

 **Appearance:** (A brief description of their appearance)

 **Personality:** (A brief description of their personality)

 **Nen type/ brief description of hats (optional):** (anything apart from a specialist. You'll see why in a few chapters!)


	4. School of Misfits

**Recap, cuz I haven't updated in over a year (oops, sorry):** After a two year break from their Hunter activities, the old gang gets reunited to Whale Island for a new request by the Hunter Association. To their surprise, Kurapika and Leorio were waiting for them in the waiting room as the mission team leaders. With crimes happening over a couple of countries, the Hunter Association noticed that the suspects were all students from a certain Private _Nen_ Academy in Landen. With that, Kurapika and Leorio were assigned to investigate the school and gather a team to go undercover.

* * *

 **Chapter Four:**

 _School of Misfits_  
 _..._

"What the hell did you pack in your luggage?" Toshiro questioned, completely infuriated by the fact that he was tugging along multiple bags along with him. In front of him was Natsume, who carried a backpack on his back and rolled along a medium-sized luggage bag and a small carry-on. He was checking the train schedules on an app on his phone, while the empty-handed Himeko led them aimlessly through the busy train station.

After the results of the entrance exams came back, everyone prepared for their departure to the _Nen_ Academy in the outskirts of Landen. After taking the flight to Gatwick airport, the trio made their way to King's Cross St. Pancras station, where they agreed to meet with the others and take the train to the Academy, who arrived in the city on different days, or at different airports.

Himeko began to list some things she packed in the bags the eldest boy was tugging around, "Autumn and winter clothes, some coats, some cute dresses and skirts, a straightener, a medium and large curler, hairdryer, make-up, some skincare and haircare stuff. You know, things I really need!"

"A fridge, a bathtub, some trees from our front yard, our dining table, just to name a few more." Natsume continued the list in a snarky manner, low-key mocking Toshiro for carrying her bags around. "Your hair is already straight, why do you even need to carry a straightener around?"

"There's a difference between straight and sleek. Who knows when my hair needs to be sleek one day."

"And Toshi, why do you always end up carrying her shit around in the first place?"

"That's what I'd like to know! Hey Kou, carry your own damn bags around."

"I am carrying one of my bags!" She pointed out, gesturing towards the miniature, black leather backpack she'd been carrying. "More importantly, isn't this where the 9 3/4 platform Harry Potter is supposed to be? Can we go there to take a picture? Who knows if we'd ever be able to come back again."

Natsume glanced at his phone again to check the time. "We still have time until our train departs. I guess we can go kill some time before we head to platform eleven."

Once again, Natsume took charge of safely navigating his housemates through the large station, until they finally ended up at the spot Himeko mentioned. There were a couple of people already taking pictures by the spot, and once it was her turn she stepped forward to the baggage trolly by the wall. Before she did this though, she entrusted her phone to Toshiro and requested him to take a couple of pictures. The young man lazily shot a few pictures from the same angle, and when she returned to have a look through her Camera Roll, she looked back up at him in sheer disappointment.

"Half these pictures are blurry! I can't post these on Instagram!"

"You have like fifty followers, who's going to even give a fuck?" He rebutted her statement in a matter-of-fact tone. "No one's looking forward to your posts anyway."

"I don't care, I like looking through my own page at least twice a day!" She shut him up, before handing her phone to trusty Natsume instead. "You take them instead. Take them from a lower angle, so my legs look longer. And take at least ten so I have a few option."

"Yes, my problematic Lady. Now go and pose, so we can get this over and done with."

Eventually, Himeko ended up being satisfied with the photos that were taken by Natsume. He too then insisted on taking a few photographs to commemorate the trip, while Toshiro just watched, not being able to understand the whole appeal of it. But now that the two boys did what Himeko wanted with very little complaint, they told her to go and buy them some food and refreshments before they meet up with the rest of the team to board the train. She watched them head off towards platform eleven, before grumpily dragging herself along to survey the nearby food stores.

At one point, the pleasant scent of freshly baked pastries caught her attention, and she used her nose to get to the source of the smell. Her eyes still on the freshly baked goods, she stood in line waiting to be served. In her head, she thought about what Toshiro and Natsume would want. When she was the next person to be served, she felt someone pat her shoulder from behind. Turning her head to look over her shoulders, she was greeted by a familiar blond man.

"Good morning, Kou." A slight smile tugged on his lips, before he stepped forward to beside next to her. His eyes then moved on to scan the prices of hot drinks on the price board, hanging at the back. It took Himeko a few moments to get used to his unexpected, casual demeanour. But she eventually mustered up a short, appropriate reply.

"Good morning, Kurapika."

"Have you decided on what you want from here?"

"No, I'm still deciding between the custard danish and the eclairs. But I also want something filling, although that makes me sound greedy. Toshiro wanted the tuna crunch baguette and a bottle of water, and Natsu wanted a coffee and a BLT."

"While you decide on what you want, go ahead and choose something for Gon and Killua since they should be arriving pretty soon, too. They have pastries, I'm sure the two would like that."

"Hmm, Gon isn't that picky with his food but Killua has a sweet tooth, so he'll prefer something sweet over savoury. Oh look, they have mini chocolate beignets!" As Himeko was continuing to scour through the selection, Kurapika began listing the order to the young lady at the cashier, starting with his own and Leorio's orders, before continuing with what the same-aged Natsume, and the slightly older Toshiro wanted. He decided to order another two more filling baguettes for the younger two boys, before adding the twenty-pack chocolate beignets to satisfy Killua's cravings.

"Kou, have you decided yet?"

After not having come up with a solution, she could only shake her head. "I think I'll just have a ham baguette as well then."

"We'll have another ham baguette, along with an eclair and a custard danish."

The young woman behind the counter began to repeat the order, before tallying it all up and calculating the total. Kurapika paid, and after receiving the receipt, the pair moved aside from the queue while their order was getting prepared by another employee.

Whilst waiting, Kurapika double-checked the bill to make sure everything was accounted for properly. Himeko watched quietly, holding Toshiro's credit card in her hand. Not only did he pay for everything, he also went along with her selfish whims.

"You didn't have to order both," she spoke out, sounding rather conflicted by his actions. "It's not going to be fair on the others." However, it didn't look like he was bothered by it until she pointed it out. In fact, it seemed like it went over his head.

"Now that you mention it, I could see them making a fuss over it." A few scenarios played out in their heads, primarily involving Leorio, Natsume and Killua who would accuse him of favouritism. In the end, Kurapika could only let out a small sigh, before giving her a boyish grin she hadn't seen in a long time. "You did quite well on the entrance exam, so I thought it would be appropriate to treat you. Please don't let it slip, Kou!"

He had always been the straight-laced type, but he never once betrayed his friends when faced with danger. The aloof Kurapika was someone she first met at the start of the journey during the exam, but there were countless of situations where he proved to them that the taciturn behaviour was just on the exterior and he was reliable in the times of need. Perhaps, during the time he was apart from everyone he felt safer to put his walls back up again. Confined within a small, safe space, where no one could rob him of his rage, and the determination to find peace for the Kurta clan, he also wanted to protect those who would get too close to him from. But it was a relief to see that in all that time, he hadn't forgotten how to smile sincerely.

On the way back, Himeko took out one of her pastries, and tried to break it in half as accurately as possible. Although she tried, one piece still ended up noticeably bigger than the other. After evaluating both pieces, she handed the slightly larger half to Kurapika, who was walking beside her with the brown paper bag he offered to carry from the small bakery they visited.

"Don't worry about me, I bought it to treat you after all!"

"You just bought a coffee for yourself, it's not good to have coffee on an empty stomach. It adds to the acidity of the stomach, and knowing you it's pretty easy to assume that you skip meals often. You'll end up with gastric problems if you aren't careful."

Kurapika looked a little surprised hearing her nagging, but eventually even he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "Alright," he heaved somewhat of a sigh, before accepting the pastry half she offered him, "Then, I'll accept your gracious offer."

"What I said before our mission meeting, it may have come out sounding quite rude." Now that some of the awkwardness that lingered between them since their reunion dispersed, her apology came out sounding more natural and sincere. "I'm sorry."

"I've always appreciated your honesty Kou, so there's nothing for you to apologise over." In order to change the subject, he decided to point something that caught his eye. "Looks like you're wearing both of your earrings again. It's good to see them back with their rightful owner."

"Ah," she unconsciously touched her earlobe where there was once a different ear stud. "Thanks again. It feels nice to have them both back again. I didn't think I'd miss wearing both of them!"

"You got a second piercing, too! I don't remember you having those in the past."

"I've seen a couple of models and singers with more than one set of ear piercings, and it looked quite good on them. So I decided to get them, too."

"Didn't it hurt?"

"I honestly didn't feel anything. I guess it's good to have a high pain tolerance. I actually want to get one pierced here."

"Isn't that through your cartilage? It'll hurt you know. I think you look fine with the piercings you have."

"But there was this Japanese model who looked so good with it. Besides, I have a high pain tolerance."

"I honestly don't understand fashion..."

The mood soon eased between the two, and the walk back to the platform became more comfortable.

Meanwhile, Gon and Killua travelled to the station together from Landen City Airport after meeting up, as their flights were only a few hours apart. After navigating through the city's extensive, maze-like underground train system, they eventually managed to get to their meeting place in one piece. From the entrance, Gon left the job of looking for the correct platform to his more trustworthy partner, taking the time to look at everyone rushing in and out of the station.

It made sense for a busy station, and an even busier city to have people running around in a rush. It was the same when they went to Yorkshin; the city that according to some never slept, and it never did. To Gon, seeing people marching around and following a hectic and robotic schedule wasn't something he could get used to. At times like this, he was really grateful for growing up on Whale Island. But at the same time, there was something stimulating about the life in the city.

He scanned through the crowd of people, hoping to run into some of the other members of the group, so they could head to the meeting place together. But his eyes were suddenly frozen when he spotted something unexpected. It was a tall man, who managed to peek over the crowd thanks to his height. The features of this man were too familiar, it almost felt ominous, sickening even. The pale skin, contrasting black hair and ocean-deep blue eyes weren't the only things that drew Gon's eyes to him. There was this dominating presence, something that set him apart from the rest of the crowd.

Gon was just about to inform Killua, before realising that his friend too had spotted the stranger. Killua, who noticed Gon being in a daze followed his line of sight feeling as if something was off. The strange man looked so familiar, it was almost nauseating to keep watching. And at that moment, the pair could think of only one thing.

 _"Kou was right, he does look an awful lot like her."_

Among the large mob, they spotted whom they could only assume was Himeko's older brother. She only showed them a picture of Hakuryuu once, insisting that they'd be able to spot him quite easily in a large group of people. However, the closer he got to the exit, the further their suspicion grew. It wasn't just his physical appearance that caught their eye this much. They couldn't put their finger to it, there was just something off about him: as if something much more sinister was hiding behind that handsome face of his.

Despite knowing how desperate their friend was searching for them, neither of the boys approached him. This time around, even Gon ignored the alarming red flags the man was emitting and stood still with Killua. Hakuryuu on the other hand could feel two pairs of eyes watching his every move, penetrating him. But the there was not threat, and he chose not to gaze back at the onlookers. Instead, he continued heading towards the exit.

Walking past the two teenagers, he finally chose to make eye contact. Noticing how surprised, or rather shocked they were, he found rather amusing. He never actually met the pair, knew very little to nothing about him, but he knew their relationship with his younger sister. Judging by their expression he guessed they knew quite a bit about him, but at the same time, they didn't know anything at all.

 _"So the little sister's here to sightsee. Are you two going to tell on me?"_

Hakuryuu's lips twitched up into a degrading smile, almost challenging the two, and sending a chill down their backs. Was it _Ren_ that made them tense up this way, not able to move a muscle? It was almost like that time with Hisoka at Heavens tower, but this time there was no _Ren_ involved. The boys continued to watch the boy set foot out of the train station, not knowing how to handle this meeting.

He was a lot different from the way Himeko had described him. In her stories, he always sounded like a supportive older brother whom she could rely on. But unlike Gon, Killua recalled the days before they all split up for the two long years. The hallucinations Himeko had back then, could they have had any truth to them? Perhaps that was what added to the demeaning aura and stopped them from approaching him.

"Killua, that was Kou's brother." Gon was the first to speak, breaking the silence and pointing out the obvious. He knew Killua realised this too, but wanted his friend to tell him how to handle this situation.

"Yeah."

There was a small pause, as the pair continued to try and grasp the situation. Neither of them chose to call out to him to try and explain the situation. They both knew it was best not to do so. Moreover, they both somehow understood that the older male recognised them from somewhere. It felt as if Hakuryuu was purposely leaving his sister in the dark.

"I think it's better for us to keep this to ourselves for now." Killua broke the silence, somewhat glad that Gon shared the same thoughts. "If he knows we're Kou's friends, he would've already figured out that she's here too."

"She's been looking for him for years now, I feel bad for not being able to tell her. Especially since they're within each other's reach."

"You're right." Killua could feel the same guilt as him, knowing how much Himeko trusted the two. She told the pair so much about her older brother, and confined in Killua about her hallucinations. He wanted to kick himself for giving her false hope back then. "Something tells me that this won't be a happy reunion."

Time stood still in the busy train station for the youngsters. Hakuryuu's knowing smile told them that they were to meet again, and they could only try to push away the inevitable. When that time comes, Himeko can't be alone. With heavy hearts the pair decided to move along. By the time they reached the platform, heads hung low, Leorio already joined Kurapika, Himeko and the others.

"Hey latecomers, hurry up before I eat your food!" Hearing her oblivious voice clearly startled the pair, and although they already knew her face by heart, they couldn't stop themselves from comparing her features with those of her elder brother. "Take a picture if you want to continue staring!"

When she raised her brows at them, waiting for an answer, Killua found an appropriate response. "You have breadcrumbs around your mouth." Although Killua had a tendency to tease her, she still took out a pocket mirror to double check and clean her supposedly dirty face. But regardless, his distraction gave him and Gon a second to get their act together. Now was not the time to tell her about this meeting.

Once the group assembled, they boarded the train to begin their long journey towards the academy. As only six people could sit together on the train, everyone except for Kurapika sat together. Kurapika, who sat a little further down didn't mind how peaceful it was around him. He predicted it to get rather rowdy if five trouble makers sat together. Instead, he just browsed through the news app on his phone. As he predicted, endless chatter came from the seats ahead of him. Most of them just complained about the journey and how jet lagged they felt.

Leorio, who was moaning about his journey the most was interrupted by a vibration in his pocket. He took out his phone, and took a glance at the screen. Seeing the name displayed on the screen, the corners of his lips tugged upwards.

"Arisa, with a heart next to it." Natsume, who was sat next to him said after peeking at the illuminated screen. "Your crush?"

Leorio displayed a slightly shy, and awkward expression as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "My girlfriend actually." The word "girlfriend" caught all the boys' attention, and they all began to stare at his face to pry for more details about this mysterious woman.

"You're lying!" Killua exclaimed, "I bet you bought her coffee and automatically thought you were dating."

"No, we are really dating! Stop making things up in your head!"

"Why can't I get a girl then?" Natsume whined. "Introduce me to one of her friends!"

"Maybe you can start by texting one of the girls in your contacts." Toshiro pointed out, letting out a unsympathetic sigh. "What's the point of getting numbers if you don't end up texting or calling them."

"Someone sounds jealous."

"He gets asked out way more than you, Natsu." Himeko retorted, reminding him who the most popular dojo occupant was. "Toshi has a nice face, but he has no game."

"Okay, but I still can't believe that the perverted old man got a girlfriend while the rest of us are still single." Killua still couldn't let it go.

"Well, unlike the rest of you he can hold a decent conversation over text." Himeko pointed out, feeling somewhat bitter. "I mean can't date someone when you can't even manage to send a text back, right?"

Amongst all the jealously, Gon was the only one who wasn't bothered. Instead, he felt rather excited for Leorio, knowing just how good of a guy he was. "Do you have a picture of her?"

"Gon don't do it, he's going to rub it in."

"Of course I do. Hold on." Ignoring Killua and Natsume's outburst, Leorio unlocked his phone, and searched through his gallery to find a picture, until he found a selfie he took with her by his side. He turned the screen around so everyone around him can have a good look at it, and presented the photo with great pride. "Isn't she just the prettiest girl you guys have ever seen?"

In the picture stood a petite young girl, probably around Leorio's age. Arisa had dark brown hair with dyed tips, slightly sun-kissed skin and wore thick-frame glasses as she smiled confidently next to Leorio in the photo.

"Second prettiest maybe," Himeko corrected him, whilst continuing to analyse the girl in the picture. "I would rank myself as the prettiest. But I can see where you're coming from. It's almost as if she's too pretty for you."

"Narcissism isn't attractive, Kou."

"Neither is your inflated ego."

"Oh, that reminds me. Weren't you dating someone, Kou?" Leorio's sudden realisation turned all the heads towards the lone girl in the group. The news wasn't too surprising to majority, minus two who have kept themselves out of the loop. But despite this, Himeko still managed to find herself somewhat taken back by the sudden question.

"Well, yeah. I ended up getting dumped though, but that isn't too surprising." In an attempt to quickly brush over the topic, Himeko tried to keep it as brief as possible. But when she looked up, she was met with some pitying looks. "Why are you guys looking at me like that? I don't need your pity."

"Do you at least have a picture of the boy you dated?" Gon asked innocently, as if it wasn't an odd to ask whether someone would keep a picture of their ex on their phone.

"Why would I still have a picture of my ex who dumped me? And why do you need to see what he looks like?"

"Just as a reference, to see what kind of guys you like." Gon continued to tell her a little white lie. "You know, just in case I want to set you up with someone in the future."

"How about you concentrate on training your _Nen_ instead of focusing on matchmaking."

While Gon was enquiring more information from her, Natsume was looking rather amused at the turn of the conversation, and nudged the boy who was sat next to him. "Looks like Gon is working hard for your sake."

"Am I and Gon the only ones who didn't know about this?"

"Pretty much. She kept in touch with Leorio, she he was pretty much in the loop most of the time," Natsume responded cooly, "I mean the guy was pretty nice. Even Haruko was okay with Kou dating him. Not sure why she decided to break up with him when they were getting along just fine."

"But didn't she just say she was dumped?"

"Whatever you heard from me, just pretend you didn't hear it." He whispered back, hoping to keep the conversation between themselves. But that couldn't stop him from wanting to tease the younger boy sitting by his side. "Besides, I've noticed she's into older boys. Tough luck, huh, Killua?"

"Shut it!"

"Anyway," with a loud clap, halting the few conversations going on, Natsume brought a stack of cards out of his bag and showed it off. "How about we kill some time with this? We still have a hell of a journey before we get to the school. I'm kind of getting tired of hearing about everyone's love life."

After shuffling a deck of card, he passed everyone a hand and they began to play a game of Old Maid. Kurapika was offered to join, but he called for a rain check, knowing just how unruly the game would get. Just as predicted, bickering could be heard coming from their seats, mainly because Leorio was caught trying to sneak a look at someone else's cards. Himeko had a perfect view from her seat to check up on Kurapika here and there, not concentrating or caring about the outcome of their card game. Just when she saw Kurapika trying to doze off, she nudged Leorio, who was sat in the seat next to her.

"Hey, did you and Kurapika get enough sleep before leaving yesterday?" She asked, although she knew his answer too well. "He seems to be tired."

"Kurapika seems to obsessed with work for some reason. Although he's always on top of his work, he's still on the edge when it comes to his job. He's trying to make as many connections in the Hunter Association as possible."

"So he doesn't take care of himself, huh?"

"I try to get him to focus on his wellbeing, it's hard to watch him overwork himself. Kurapika's really put his own wellbeing last." It wasn't too hard to imagine what Leorio said. Even back in Yorkshin city, Kurapika began to neglect his own health for his quest to find and kill the Phantom Troupe. He knew how to find connections, that was why he delved into the underground world, and that's why he accepted his role as one of the twelve Zodiac members.

Himeko passed her hand of cards to Leorio. "Take over for me, I need to go to the toilet."

Before anyone could question her, she raced out of her seat towards the toilet. However, she did not plan on using the public train toilet, and waited for a while by the toilet door before returning to her seat. But whilst wandering back, she stopped by Kurapika's seat, whose head was hanging forward while trying to get some rest. Trying not to wake him, she carefully adjusted the fluffy neck pillow she brought from her seat and rested it around his neck. With the pink pillow around his neck, Kurapika looked visibly more comfortable.

Just before she was about to go, she heard a small mumble coming from him. "Thanks, Kou."

Without responding, she hurried back to her seat.

...

A couple of hours later, the team arrived at the academy one by one. Separating the academy and the building, including all the dormitories from the rest of the town was a wall with a double gate as the main entrance. Upon first glance, there is no way to get in and out of the place without either jumping over the walls, or using the front gate. However, walking towards the main building, they noticed a handful of security cameras around the premises. Unless a specific _Nen_ was used, they doubted that the academy could be left undetected. But even then, there must've been a strict control over using _Nen_ within the establishment. Either way, from just the first glimpse, the academy looked extremely suspicious.

One by one, starting from Natsume and ending with Gon, they team gathered at the main building's reception where they were told to gather. There, they were expecting to be received by a member of staff who would show them to their dorm rooms. In the reception, the click-clack sound of the receptionist's typing sounded throughout the whole room, devouring its silence. The typing sound stopped as the door opened, presenting the team with a elderly man in a navy suit and a freshly trimmed grey beard. The blonde receptionist stood up, and bowed her head forwards to greet him.

"Welcome to the _Nen_ academy, I'm Professor Watson, the Principal of this humble establishment." His voice was friendly, welcoming, and almost sounded extremely excited to have new students on board. "It's pretty rare for us to get students at this time of year, we normally receive application at the start of summer. But I'm not complaining, you're all promising new students after all."

 _"Do school Principals personally greet new students like this?"_ Kurapika couldn't help but sense something off during this whole exchange, and he wasn't the only one. _"It's almost as if he's suspicious."_

"We have already prepared your school uniforms according to the sizes you provided, so they should be in you dorm room closet. You will also be escorted to your dorms and toured around by your dorm presidents, who will be here shortly. Feel free to ask them any queries during the course of your stay, they will be willing to assist you. You will be expected to attend your first classes tomorrow morning."

The academy split off the dormitories according to university and non-university students. The non-university students were further subdivided according to their _Nen_ types: Enhancers, Transmuters, Manipulators and Emitters. As Specialists were rare, they did not have a dorm building for themselves. As there weren't as many university students in the mix, there were only two buildings where students were randomly assigned to.

"I guess that means we are stuck together, again," Himeko muttered over to Killua, not sure if she should be surprised or not.

"Unfortunately." He retorted, having somewhat predicted this outcome. _"Not that I'm complaining."_

The Principal waited for the dorm leaders to arrive, before preparing to leave. But before he walked back to his office, he turned around to face the group yet again. "Do we have a Miss Maeda here?"

Upon recognising the undercover name she used in her application, Himeko raised her hand. "Yes, present."

"Would you be kind enough to stop by my office before your first class tomorrow morning? I would like to discuss something with you before you join your classes. If you do not know your way, you can ask Miss Patel to escort you to my office as she's your dorm leader."

Hearing his small, but sudden request, it wasn't just Himeko who was taken back. Her heart was hammering through her ribcage, wondering whether there was something that made him realise that she wasn't actually Kou Maeda.

Careful so that her face didn't give her away, Himeko returned a small smile in return. "Of course, I'll be sure to stop by your office tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, see you then. And I hope you will all learn a lot at our academy."

Not being able to discuss this in front of a crowd, everyone decided to remain quiet and act oblivious. Kurapika sent a small text message around, insisting that everyone should stay calm and that these matters can be discussed in an hour once everyone had settled down. But when taken to their dorms, that was the only thing on Himeko's mind.

She tried hard to not show it through her body language, but it wasn't too hard for Killua to notice her unease. The two dorm leaders leading them towards the Transmuter dorm probably didn't notice, but to Killua, she looked like a cat that looked on edge around her new surrounding. Careful to not attract attention front the pair walking in front of them, Killua placed his hand in hers, hoping to turn her attention towards him.

"Your paper work was checked thoroughly by Kurapika and Leorio before they were sent off, so don't think about it too much. That bridge is for you to cross tomorrow, try to focus on getting settled in today." Feeling comfort through his warm hand, she let out a long breath, trying to calm her nerves. "If you want, I'll come with you. It's before the first class, so he won't be able to complain about me waiting for you outside his office."

Now that she calmed down, she shook her head in response. "We can't show them how close we all are from day one, it'll be a dead give away. According to them, we all first met on the day of the entrance exams a few weeks back. If we stick our noses in each other's business we'd look suspicious."

"If he does blackmail you, or says anything strange we've got your back. Let us know."

Himeko gave him a slight smile, releasing her hand from his. "Don't worry, I'm strong! You should know that too well."

He didn't expect anything less, knowing too well she would say something like that. Feeling proud after hearing those words from her, he smiled back, "Yeah, make sure to kick his ass if he tries anything weird."

Once they arrived at their dorm, Killua was taken to the east wing towards the boys' dormitory, while Himeko was taken west towards the girls' dormitory. Taking her suitcase up to the third floor, the dorm leader pointed her towards the direction of her dorm room, informing her that her roommate should be aware of her arrival and would be happy to assist her with anything. Parting with the young girl, she continued down the hallway with her suitcase and ended up in front of her dorm room.

Using the new ID she was issued, she opened to door by swiping it through the slot by the door handle. But when she knocked and opened the door, she saw that the curtains were still closed and the room was pitch black without any lights on. She looked for the light switch by the door, and after finding it she flipped it, illuminating the entire room. However, once the room was lit up, she heard a unexpected groggy voice, weakly call out to her.

"Switch off the lights!"

* * *

 **A/n:** So... this is the longest time I didn't update. It's been over a year and I'm so sorry. Med school's really getting to me. I know it's been so long since I've updated, and I've honestly been feeling so guilty over the months that I couldn't find myself to write a quality chapter. I've first created this doc sometime during summer last year, and I've been writing, editing, and deleting sentences on here since then.

Thank you so much for waiting so patiently, you guys are honestly the best and so supportive! I know my hiatuses are starting to get worse than Togashi's!

On the flip side, thanks to everyone who's been sending me OC submissions for the new arc. Just so you know, I won't be accepting any new ones after today. That aside, I'll treat your OCs well during this arc ^^

 **Review corner (wow, feels weird doing this again):**

 **SilverDewDrop:** Thanks for your review as always, and I hope you're doing well! Thank you for your OC submission!

 **WormwoodSand:** Yees, I got the idea for Dow from one of the movies. I want to add my own twists to _Nen_ since I'm branching off in a different direction after the Chimera arc, so I'm going to use this arc to add more insights to the _Nen_ techniques in this fanfics HxH world. Also, thank you for your OC submissions!

 **Guest:** Thanks for the OC submission ^^

 **Guest:** Thanks for the review. I'm really trying to incorporate Kurapika back into the story as naturally as possible, although it's going to take some time for him to match the dynamic of the rest of the group again. I love writing Gon/Killua/Kou scenes, and I really want this arc to bring out their child like traits! Thanks for your review, sorry for taking my time again lol.

 **Guest:** Hi, thanks for your review and your character submission ^^

 **Em:** I will make you change ships several times in the sequel, just you wait haha. Thank you for your review!

 **Guest:** Welcome back from your hiatus (I know it's very delayed). Thanks for your continued support through the series, it really makes me happy hearing that my writing style has improved during the years. And oh boy, do I have a lot of things planned for her brother, clan etch. Thanks for your review!

 **Guest:** Thank you for your review and thanks for sending in your OCs!

 **Sin of Nutella:** Thanks for your OCs and review!

 **Child-of-Strength:** Thank you for your review. This series will have more romance than the prequel, so you won't have to wait too long to see progress in the romance (hopefully). Since the characters are older and matured over the gap between the prequel and sequel, this is the perfect time for me to play with the romance element a bit more.

 **NielleXD:** Hey, thanks for your continuous support through the years. I'm happy that you use this fic to help relieve your stress! Thanks for sending in both your OCs, and once again thank you for your review!

 **Guest:** Thanks for supporting me all the way to the sequel, and thank you for leaving a review!

 **Hayane:** Lol hey, I have risen from the dead. That asides, thanks for being patient and waiting, and thanks for leaving a review ^^

 **Guest:** Sorry it's been so long, I'm back baby lol! Thanks for leaving a review, and thank you for being patient with me and waiting.

 **Guest:** Very overdue christmas present. Merry Christmas, thanks for waiting and thanks for leaving a review.

 **Hasumi-yume3e:** Hi, thanks for sending in an OC. And thanks for the review!

Also, thank you to **Misaka** **Phenex** for sending in an OC via PM.


	5. First Day

**Chapter Five:**

 _First day at school is always the hardest_  
...

"Switch off the lights!"

Himeko heard a groggy voice call out to her from one of the single beds in the room, and instinctively obeyed by darkening the room again. Hearing no response after knocking on the door, and seeing how the curtains were still drawn, she naturally assumed that her roommate was out. It was mid-afternoon, and although a small nap after school wasn't a bad way to rejuvenate yourself, Himeko couldn't help but look dumbfounded.

"I'm very sorry, I'm your new roommate Kou Maeda. I apologise for disturbing your sleep."

"I sleep a lot, don't mind me."

"Sure..." Himeko still couldn't help but stand in the dark room, not knowing how she was going to deal with this roommate for the rest of the mission. "Can I at least use my phone's flashlight?"

"You can open the blinds a little. Please wake me up when it's time for dinner." After turning to face the wall, her roommate went quiet and the sound of her even breaths could be heard faintly. It wasn't exactly the welcome she expected, and she wasn't even able to catch a glimpse of what her roommate looked like. Either way, Himeko quietly rolled in her suitcase and carried in any other bags she brought along to the school, before slowly closing the room door.

The room was laid out fairly simple, and both sides were quite plain to say the least. She expected her roommates side of the room to have pictures, fairy lights or other small decorations hanging around, but it looked just like her own side of the room which had been cleared upon her arrival. The two single beds were on either sides of the decently sized, carpeted room, with a study desk on each side that had a small book shelf above on the wall. Other than that, there was a wooden closet for each student occupying the room.

There was no saying on how long the mission was going to take, it could be weeks, or even a couple of months. Taking out the contents of the suitcases, and arranging them in the wardrobe was probably the best thing to do. The room was already cleaned, the books were provided on the desk and a school uniform set, consisting of a white shirt, black tie and blue V-neck jumper, along with a pleated black skirt was hung inside the wardrobe. There were also a light blue polo shirt, dark blue tracksuit bottoms and a dark blue sweatshirt inside, which could be assumed was the school's P.E uniform.

With everyone taking time to prepare for the first day at the academy, the rest of day went by fairly uneventfully.

The next morning, unsurprisingly, Himeko was the first one to wake up. Whilst her roommate was still sleeping, she decided to start getting ready by taking a quick morning shower. Despite their first meeting, Theodora, or Thea for short, helped her unpack after dinner that evening. She wasn't the most talkative girl, but she allowed for there to be a comfortable silence in the room where Himeko didn't feel any awkwardness. Thea turned out to be two years older than Himeko, and when asked what she liked to do in her spare time she answered that she liked to sleep. She go into much detail about her _Nen_ ability, but whatever it was, she said it caused her extreme fatigue.

It was still fairly early once Himeko finished getting dressed for class as she had to meet the Principal first. Before she left her room though, she approached Thea's bed, and lightly shook her awake.

"Get up Thea, I'm heading out."

It took a few more shakes for there to be a solid response. The redhead shifted under her blanket, and lazily opened her hazel eyes to look up at her new roommate. The sleepy look was quickly replaced by her looking back up at the younger girl in a daze.

"I really need to head out now. Don't go back to sleep, okay?"

Before Thea could ask what was lingering on her mind, Himeko rushed out with her school bag to head to the Principal's office. On the way down the awfully quiet dorm hallway, her phone which was inside her hand vibrated. There was a text sent in their team's group chat.

* * *

 **IDIOTS (+kurapika)  
**

* * *

 **Leorio:  
** Hey! Don't freak out on us, ok? Let us know how it goes!

 **You:**  
Kl

 **Leorio:**  
Don't kl me!

 **You:**  
K

* * *

As she walked staring at her phone, she could sense someone walking towards her. She looked up before they bumped into each other and the little boy stopped walking. He was much younger than her, and judging from the boy's school uniform, he was definitely in the primary school division. The dorm rooms were split up according to age group, and the lower floors were occupied by the much younger students. So, unless the boy was visiting an older student on that floor, he didn't have any other business there.

 _But though she expected the boy to walk past her, he just stood in front of her._

 _"I don't really have time to help a lost kid..."_ Himeko sighed deeply, hoping this responsibility doesn't fall on her shoulders. She smiled despite her annoyance. "Are you lost? Do you need me to take you downstairs?"

"No need, I know how to get back." The boy didn't look fazed at all, it honestly seemed like he was quite confident with his surroundings. Besides, he wasn't that young either and looked no younger than either nine or ten years of age.

Hearing this, Himeko stepped to her side to walk past the boy, but the boy did the same and her path ended up getting blocked again. She tried again. And again. And again.

She sighed again, this time barely trying to conceal the frustration in her voice. "Okay, out with it! Are you here to sabotage me on my first day? Or am I just that pretty to hold up?"

"You're the new girl, right? I've been given the job to look after you!" He exclaimed somewhat proudly, standing up straight. Himeko returned a rather dumbfounded look, trying to figure out whether the boy was telling the truth, or whether some idiot actually did send a primary school student to take care of her.

"Not trying to be mean or anything, but you're like half my height. How are you supposed to look after me?"

"I'm not lying!" He made a desperate attempt to prove his words to be true, pulling out a sheet of paper that looked like it had seen better days. She leaned in to read the contents of the document the boy presented her with.

"School buddy?" Although Kurapika has strictly told everyone in the team to read through the Academy's handbook, no one really did it except for Kurapika himself. Himeko herself only skimmed through the pages, barely trying to absorb the gists of it.

With the _Nen_ Academy being a fairly closed off facility, it had implemented strict rules they were already aware of. The "Buddy system" was originally just designed to combat the loneliness of younger students attending the academy by giving them an older sibling figure to reach out to. Due to the uneven numbers, some older students are assigned to two younger students, and one of these students can then be passed onto a new student upon joining. Looking after them includes small tasks like checking up on the children once in while, helping them with homework, and providing emotional support when needed.

She remembered bits and pieces of what was written about it in the handbook, so it wasn't exactly hard to put two and two together. "Not trying to break your bubble, but I think I'm the one who's supposed to look after you, not the other way round."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who got called to the Principal's office on the first day of school."

As if a switch was flipped, she bent down so she was at the blond boy's eye level and looked straight at him. "Listen up, _Elias_ , I really need to go now so I can't play around with you. How about you just comeback this evening and I can help with your homework?" Her low tone, though it wouldn't have been intimidating to Gon and the others was more than enough to unnerve Elias.

Elias furrowed his brows, eye looking a little moist. "I don't care anymore, I hope you get lost on the way to the Principal's office, and trip and fall and get rained on. And I hope a dog poops on you."

The boy quickly walked off to where he came from not looking back.

 _"I actually feel bad now... I should go and check up on him after school."_

But it didn't take too long for her to meet Elias again. At the empty entrance of the dorm, the boy seemed to be waiting for someone, his eyes solely focused on the staircase leading up to the upper floors of the building.

"I was waiting for you, didn't you say you'll be late for your meeting?" Although he looked hurt just a few moments ago, he was back to his perky, slightly bossy self.

"I'll show you the way myself. Follow me!" With no chance for her to tell him no, he marched forward to the main school building, expecting her to follow. With little choice left, she went after him, following him in complete silence. The little boy to her looked rather excited, maybe because it gave him a chance to have someone rely on him, instead of the other way around. So when Himeko followed him with no protest, it cheered him up without her actually having to do much. She could almost imagine the smile on his face.

"Elias, are you living in the same dorm as I am? Or are you not a transmuter?"

Walking in complete quietness for a while, Elias was looking forward for her to start a conversation with him. Most transmuters aren't social butterflies, and Elias knew that after attending the academy for so long. He knew he could get away with small talk, but he didn't expect a full on conversation out of her. So hearing her asking him a personal question delighted him.

"I am a transmuter. My room is on the ground floor with the other primary school kids. Oh, but I'm one of the strongest transmuters in my class. I could do _Zetsu_ on my fourth try."

Having encountered a handful of transmuters, including Killua, Hisoka, or even some of the Phantom Troupe members, she had never really seen one that had enhancer-like personality trait. Talking to Elias was like talking to Gon at some times, and to Killua at others. That thought made her more comfortable as she continued listening to the boy's rambling.

Upon arriving at the Principal's office, Elias took a firm stance to stand guard besides the door. "I'll wait for you," he declared, waiting for her to go inside.

"You're waiting for no one," she cut him off before he got too comfortable. "Go have some breakfast and head to class. I can take it from here."

"No, I'll wait."

"Go eat."

His stubbornness dissipated as soon as she firmly ended her sentence, and he was well on his way back to the dorm's eating hall to have some breakfast before his first class. Once he was out of sight, Himeko gave the office door a firm knock, and hearing a voice call her in she opened the door and entered.

"Miss Maeda, please come in and have a seat." Although the Principal was rather eccentric, there was no sort of ill-feeling or hostility lingering in the room. She concentrated on the vibrations in the air caused by his breathing, which was even and steady. She could confidently conclude that there was nothing for her to worry about and waltzed in before taking a seat in front of his desk.

"How are you doing? Did you get used to the new environment yet?"

"Yes, the students are all fairly helpful, so I'm having no trouble settling in." She replied to his question with a safe, yet model answer. "Is there a specific reason why you wanted to see me alone, and none of the other students?"

"Oh, don't worry. You're not in trouble or anything, it's quite the opposite." He turned his laptop around, so the screen faced her. Displayed was a Excel spreadsheet, with a few percentages on it. "These are the marks you got on your entrance exams. You got full marks on all the papers except for the _Nen_ theory paper and practical exam. I think it shows the potential you have as a student here in the future."

"Thank you."

"I have had a talk with some of the other teachers teaching in the high school department, and we have decided to move you a year up. There is no point in you wasting time when you know the syllabus, so I'd rather not have you learn what you already know."

Himeko thought about it. Doing well on all exam papers did attract the attention she didn't want, however, it was something Kurapika requested. The mission was all about making connections with students and teachers to gather all the necessary information. Doing something to have all eyes on you wasn't ideal, but in this case it was advantageous. Gaining the teachers' trusts from day one as a studious pupil was the plan Kurapika wanted her to execute.

"If I had the choice, I'd feel more comfortable with my own year group. I think I'd feel a little intimidated with students who are academically ahead of me."

The year above her was the same class Killua and Gon were in. Having them split up into different year groups would mean them being able to engage with more students. If she were to join Gon and Killua it would mean that they would make less connection overall, which could potentially slow down the investigation.

"That's understandable, but how about you give it a try before you decide. If you don't enjoy it, you can always tell your homeroom teacher and we can move you to the lower class. Does that sound like a fair deal?"

There was nothing she could say to refute his proposal, so she nodded in agreement.

"Also, would you be up for joining the academy's student council? I think you'd be a promising student to join."

The student council was something else Kurapika explained to them. A lot of the small events ran by the school, such as the Sports and _Nen_ tournaments are organised by the student councils. Being part of it would allow you to gain a massive network of information you would otherwise not be able to get outside it. Although him and Leorio didn't want everyone to join, they thought having a small number of the team join would benefit them immensely. Although moving up an academic year wasn't Kurapika's plan, he did ask her to ace the exams to push her into the student council.

"I don't actually mind. I think it would be a good experience."

"That's great. I'll have a student in your class pass on the application form. If you have any questions, feel free to ask him."

"I'll be sure to do that."

"Well, I guess that's all I needed you for." He said, before standing out of his chair. "I'll take you to your classroom."

The morning bell had already rang, so when she was headed to her classroom the hallways were quiet already, with only one or two late students rushing around. Himeko waited for the Principal to talk to her new homeroom teacher, a woman seemingly in her mid-thirties, with curly black hair and an olive complexion. She could see the curious students staring at her with the thought "we have another new student?".

Himeko turned to look at the class, noticing that both Killua and Gon were sat right at the back next to each other. Although they looked surprised at first, but that look quickly quickly turned to that of an old couple grinning, knowing they have won the lottery.

 _"We have someone to copy homework off!"_ They thought, almost scarily in sync.

Knowing exactly what her friends were thinking, she thought, _"Two peas in a pot."_

"Miss Maeda, this is your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Akerman."

The teacher held out her hand for a handshake, which Himeko accepted.

Witnessing the interactions between their friend and the teachers, Killua couldn't help but sound a little annoyed at the difference in treatment. "Why does she always get the nice treatment from everyone, they treat her like she's won a Nobel Prize. We just got a smile and got told to go and sit down."

"Do you think Kou's going to be in our class?" Gon asked, confused at why she's in their classroom. As far as he was aware, she was supposed to be an academic year younger than them.

"They probably moved her up to our class because she did well in the exam. Remember how Leorio lectured us on the way here to study more."

"It's not my fault Kou is smart!"

"It isn't, but it's your fault that you're stupid."

"Well, at least I spent the last two years studying with Aunt Mito."

"So it's a miracle you're still stupid." While the pair of boys were arguing in quiet whispers, the Principal had already left the room and their teacher had Himeko sit at the front of the class, in the empty seat near the teacher's desk. Class started, and unlike what the trio had expected, their first two lessons turned out to be more useful that they would've ever thought.

At break time, Gon marched over to the front of the class to Himeko's seat, with a reluctant Killua joining him. Himeko also stood out of her seat unexpectedly, and started walking out of the class. Naturally assuming that he was more than welcome to join her, Gon followed with Killua, who wanted nothing more than just stay in his seat. The three walked silently, with two of them having no idea where they were being lead to and following Himeko like baby chicks would follow a mother hen. Eventually, they ended up at the cafeteria.

"What are we doing here?" Gon questioned, having had breakfast only two hours ago. Although he wasn't protesting with her choice in leading them to the canteen as he didn't mind having a quick snack.

"It's not lunch time yet." Killua added, who also thought about what he could buy as a second breakfast.

"I didn't have breakfast because I woke up early. I thought I'd have something before our next class. Plus Gon seemed like he had some questions."

Feeling like having a conversation outside would be more appropriate, they grabbed some pastries and headed out of a more secluded part of the school. Himeko felt the air around her, trying to sense any small vibrations in the air that can be caused by breathing.

"We're alone. We can talk here, but I'll keep my guard up."

"I was surprised seeing you come to our class. I didn't really expect it." Gon missed no second to start talking after being given a signal from her. "But I like having both you and Killua in my class."

"I honestly tried to convince them to let me go back to the other class, but they were insistent about me moving up a year," she explained. "I can't really do anything about it now, I guess we have to continue as it is. Besides I asked whether I wanted to join the Student council, so I guess that's a plus."

"The student council? Didn't you get asked that too, Killua?"

"Yeah, some kid in our class asked me and gave me the form. I think his name was Luca, or something. The guy in the red sweater."

"Did you fill it out yet?" Himeko asked.

"No, I didn't want to."

"What?!" She exclaimed, trying to keep her voice as quiet as she could. "Weren't we supposed to try and get as much info as we could?"

"It's easy for Gon and you since you're good at kissing people's asses. I tend to get into disagreements when it comes to wanna-be authority figures, so wouldn't it be better for you and Kurapika to handle big shots?"

"Do you really think I like kissing up to people or something? Just pretend to like people, it's not going to hurt you and it's simpler than arguing with people all the time."

"Not my style!"

"You little bitch!"

"Hey guys, let's not fight, okay?" Gon intervened, and physically separated the two before someone, most likely Himeko, hurt the other. "We don't have much time until break ends anyway. Besides, I didn't expect class to be so interesting. And that's big coming out of my mouth."

"Yeah, I thought there was little we didn't know about _Nen_. Turns out we were wrong." Killua added, recalling the first two hours of their _Nen_ classes they had. Additionally to normal lessons taught at other schools such as mathematics, biology, chemistry et cetera, the _Nen_ academy also taught theoretical lessons on _Nen_.

Being accustomed to _Nen_ techniques, and having developed their personal _Hatsus_ put the trio way ahead of majority of the students and even some teachers at the academy, so it was a surprise to them when they were taught something they didn't really know about. Additionally to the basics, _Ten_ , _Ren_ , _Zetsu_ , _Hatsu_ , and the advanced techniques, there were also _Zen_ and _Kensho_ _,_ terms they have never really heard of.

 _Zen_ involved the advanced use of once _Hatsu_ , and their teacher used the transmuters as an example. A transmuter is capable of using their aura to mimic the properties of something else. In Himeko's case it was wind, while Killua used electricity. _Zen_ involves the enhancement of ones bodily functions and abilities with these abilities. Although it was a foreign word, during the class the three quickly realised that it wasn't an unfamiliar concept at all.

Killua had been able to use _Zen_ since two years ago, when he developed a technique called _Godspeed_. At that point, the technique was still fairly new and he could only use if for a short period of time, but he was certain that it was _Zen_. Similarly, Himeko stated that she had been able to develop a form that had reminded her of Killua's _Godspeed_ , which enhanced her physical abilities.

"You guys have it so easy!" Gon sighed in envy. "It's always easier for transmuters and conjurers to visualise things like this."

"But didn't she say that enhancers often change their physical forms too? I know Bisky is a transmuter as well, but remember how she can change to a smaller form?" Himeko began to suggest her theory. "I think you'd be able to enhance your physical form to change into a stronger form by accumulating and concentrating your _Nen_ in your muscles."

"So it's kinda like a reverse of the old hag?" Killua asked, seeing how her explanation could be plausible. "So you can change into a bigger, brawnier form from a smaller one. Think of Hulk, minus the anger issues."

"Hulk?" Gon tilted his head, not being able to catch onto the mainstream media reference.

"Just think reverse Bisky."

That left the final technique which was talked about in their class, _Kensho,_ which essentially meant to see ones true form, or awakening. Mrs. Akerman explained how there was very little known about it since only a small number of people were able to reach that form. However, this form can break the limits the human body can handle, resulting in the breakage of physical body with only the person's _Nen_ or aura remaining. It is essentially the strongest possible form a person can take, but it can lead to said person's death.

"Don't you think that's cool?" Of course, Gon mind only briefly focused on the warning labels attached to this specific technique, awing over how powerful this form must be. "Do you think anyone we know can use it?"

"Grandpa Zeno is one of the strongest _Nen_ users I know, and I've never heard him mention anything about that."

"I haven't heard anything either, although Sensei is pretty well versed in _Nen_ techniques. I don't think he'll attempt or teach something so dangerous. Even if any of our teachers knew about it, I doubt they would've taught us. I mean what is the possibility of Killua's family, or Sensei, or Bisky not knowing about something like this?"

Since it was something that sparked Gon's interest, Himeko's words disheartened him. He knew what reckless use of _Nen_ can end up as, and he swore to himself and Mito that he would never do something like that. But misuse and proper knowledge of a technique are different.

"I know I can't learn it on my own. I won't be learning from my mistakes if I did that." Gon stated, reassuring both of his friends. "But one day, I really want to find someone who can teach me how to use it. I mean, aren't you interested at all Killua?"

"Well, I'm not completely uninterested..."

Himeko let out a loud, frustrated sigh. She had been away from the pair for too long to remember just how stubborn they really were. Fighting and training really became like something they enjoyed doing. She never really had any problems with it, since they were doing it responsibly. But the consequences of _Nen_ misuse has been etched inside her mind.

"I guess it's fine as long as you train under someone who knows what they're doing." She murmured, admitting defeat. "It's nearly time to go back, I need to use the toilet so I'll see you guys in class."

"Kou, here take this!" Before she could go, Killua handed her a small chocolate milk carton.

It wasn't really something she expected, but then again she knew that Killua had very subtle ways of caring for others. "Thanks, I haven't had my morning tea. I guess this would have to do for today."

Seeing this, Gon lightly slapped his friend on his back, "What about me?" He asked in a slightly whiney voice.

"You already had breakfast and a post-breakfast, what more do you want?" Whilst Himeko walked away, Gon gave Killua somewhat of a teasing smile. But all jokes and head-buttings aside, Gon felt proud that Killua was more confident in expressing himself more freely. His friend had a bad habit of holding back his own feelings. He wanted Killua to be more selfish with what he wanted.

The boys headed back, and Himeko was in the girl's toilet washing her hands in front of the sink. Just then, she noticed one of the centre cubicles opening, and a familiar girl walking out, looking rather dejected. It was one of the girls from her class.

"Excuse me," the girl with the short, brown bob called out to her quite awkwardly, not knowing how to ask for a favour. "Do you have a pad? Or a tampon. Mine are in my bag and I left it in the classroom." Asking your new classmate, who was basically just a stranger for a sanitary item was embarrassing and uncomfortable, but at the same time, she didn't really have any other choice.

Himeko handed her a sanitary pad from her bag, "Let me know if you need two."

"No, one is enough, thank you." The girl disappeared into the cubicle again, and was surprised to emerge out of it with Himeko still waiting for her. Himeko was now only in her full-sleeved shirt, having taken her navy blue jumper off and in her arms. The girl was handed the jumper.

"You have a stain on your skirt, so you should wrap my jumper around your waist. I'll let the teacher know that you went back to your dorm because you weren't feeling well."

"Your jumper is new, so I don't want to get it dirty. I'll just go back, most people are heading back to their classes anyway."

"It's fine, I'm supposed to join the student council anyway, so they'll be giving me a new jumper. Besides, I can wash it. It's no big deal!"

The girl took off her jumper in the morning, so she didn't have an other choice than to accept her offer, though feeling guilty but grateful at the same time. She tied it around her waist, and Himeko had a quick look whether the stain was still visible.

"Thanks so much, I don't think I would've been able to walk back. The stains bigger than I thought, and I didn't expect to get my period until next week."

"No prob! Girls gotta stick together when it flows!"

She seemed to have calmed down now that the matter had been resolved, and couldn't help but chuckle hearing Himeko's words. "We are in the same class, you're Kou, right? I'm Anastasia, but you can just call me Ana."

"Sure, is there anyone I should ask to bring your school bag?"

"There's a girl who sits two seats behind you. Her name is Vivian. Do you mind asking her to bring me my bag after school? I left my phone in my bag, so I can't really text her either."

Despite their awkward first interactions, the girls hit off and chatted a little while they were still heading the same way. It was mostly Anastasia asking questions about where Himeko came from, or where she previously studied. With the bell having gone off, the hallway wasn't as occupied as the pair walked. But that was where the next bit of trouble approached them from the other side of the hallway.

"Hey, why are you two not heading to your classrooms? The bell has gone off, hurry up!" It was a boy maybe a year or two older than them, wearing the same uniform but with a burgundy red jumper instead of the usual navy jumper. The burgundy jumpers were worn by individuals in the student council, while the rest of the students wore the normal navy ones.

His walk portrayed arrogant and a sense of self importance as he got closer to them.

"I'm heading to class," Himeko stated flatly, not being affected by his demeanour. "My friend felt sick while we were in the toilet, so I stayed with her until she felt better."

"That requires a visit to the nurses office. It doesn't explain why you are still lingering around the hallway whilst everyone is rushing to their classes."

"What, you expect us to teleport to the nurse's office? Don't you think using the hallways to get where we want to go is common sense?"

Anastasia pulled on her arm, as a kind of warning. "He's in the student council. He has a reputation for picking on people he doesn't get along with." It was a small whisper, hoping she couldn't be heard by him.

"Isn't that considered power-harassment, or just plain old bullying? What's he doing in the student council then?"

"Bullying?" The boy scoffed, raising a brow in response to her claim. "You must be new around here. That's just how things work in this school. Get used to it."

"Wow, you must be fun at parties."

She felt another pull on her arm, but this time harder. "Kou!" Ana desperately issued another warning, only having Himeko's best interest in mind. "Don't provoke him, especially since you're joining the student council."

Himeko backed down hearing Ana's words. She was correct, she wasn't supposed to be stirring up trouble. If it wasn't for the mission, she wouldn't have stopped. Whatever he was doing at school wasn't supposed to be her business, she was supposed to find the students committing the crimes around the world.

"Fine, let's go." She grabbed Anastasia's hand and confidently dragged her behind her, past the upperclassman. Once they walked past him, she let go. "We'll go to class, so get off our backs."

* * *

 **A/n:** Introducing new characters is so hard! TT_TT I was going to add some of you guys' OC's in this chapter, but I wasn't able to before reaching my target word limit. Next chapter for sure! Also, a lot (but not all) of this arc will be written from Kou's point of view, so I couldn't write much Kurapika, Leorio, Natsu and Toshi in this either. I kinda miss them after not writing about them for one chapter.

 **Review Corner:**

 **SilverDewDrop:** Good thing you saved the cake (if there was cake in the cake pan that is)! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy reading the future chapters I have planned :)

 **Hayane-chan:** Yes, I'm alive! I really missed writing, but I could never really find the time and when I did I couldn't find the motivation. Since I've finished my uni exams I really hope to write more over the summer (hopefully!). Thanks for reading as always!

 **Thaishi:** Hi new reader, welcome! Hope you didn't mind the lack of Kurapika in this chapter (although there is a lot of lack of Kurapika in the prequel). I'm really excited to incorporate him into the story again and the end of this arc where something big will happen, but I can't tell you what happens because then it'll be a spoiler, but I also can't wait until then! I'm basically just really excited!


	6. New Faces

**Chapter 6:**

 _New Faces_ **  
**...

After seeing Anastasia off, Himeko promptly returned to her classroom. The argument, which she just considered an unlucky encounter with the upperclassman in the hallway was still in the back of her mind. There were a lot of things she could've said to retort, but she managed to hold her tongue. This was a mission, and professionalism comes first. If Kurapika, who was their team leader, told them to avoid attracting too much attention, then so it would be. But seeing how the upperclassman was a bomb just waiting for the right time to explode, she'll have to find a way to diffuse the situation. Otherwise, joining the student council would just bring more problems.

The next few subjects taught inside the classroom went by in a breeze, and by the time they knew it, it was already lunch time.

As Himeko packed up her writing equipment and notebook, she heard a friendly voice coming from behind her. "Hey! Kou, right?" As she turned around, she was met with a girl who's long brown hair had been perfectly curled and styled. "I'm Vivian, you told me Ana went to her room after break."

"Oh, hey. Can I help?" Her interaction with Vivian, one of Anastasia's friends was kept to a brief few words in the form of a whisper, so Himeko thought that was end of her business. Seeing, how she started another conversation with her, she couldn't predict where this one was going.

"Did Ana say she'll be coming back to class today?"

"She said if her cramps got better she'd come back, but other than that she said you'll take her bag back if she doesn't."

"Hm," Vivian hummed as she looked at the clock in thought. "It's been two hours, so she might be taking a nap. That's fine, I'll take her bag back to her then."

"Sure, sounds cool." Himeko smiled back, ending that topic of conversation. However, Vivian and her two friends didn't look like they were done yet, and continued to smile expectantly, trying to keep up the natural flow of the conversation, which Himeko was continuously making stiff and awkward.

"Thanks for helping Ana out!" The girl finally seemed to have said what was stuck on her mind, and her shoulders instantly relaxed as those words left her lips. "She must have thanked you a lot already, but since we're her friends, we want to thank you again. Ana isn't really a people's person, and she's quite shy, so she hesitates a lot when asking a stranger for help."

Somehow, those words really flustered Himeko. She did help people, once in a while at least, but being surrounded by only guys all the time felt so much different from this. It felt strange being surrounded by fellow girls her age, and just engaging in a normal conversation that didn't involve fighting, or _Nen_ or training in general. For her, this was a nice change in pace. "Don't worry guys, it's cool! Really!"

Feeling two sets of eyes on her back, Vivian turned back and was faced by her two other friends who grinned at her, waiting for her to act as a middleman and introduce them to the newcomer. "Oh, I forgot about these two!"

"I'm Mina, nice to meet you" the tall, dusky-skinned girl with freckles and short, black hair introduced herself first.

The other girl in contrast had pale skin, with lengthy periwinkle purple hair. "I'm Hasumi, nice to meet you! We are getting lunch and heading over to Ana's room to eat over there. Do you want to join us?"

"Don't worry, Ana won't mind you being there! She'll be glad actually," Vivian added, hoping Hasumi's invitation didn't sound too out of the blue. "The four of us usually have lunch together, so you can join us."

"That's sweet, but I already promised to have lunch with someone else."

"In that case, reserve tomorrow for us!" Mina exclaimed, almost making it sound like a demand. "We'll have lunch with Ana in the cafeteria. We'll show you the best meals you can get here at school."

"Tomorrow sounds fine." Although the invitation sounded like a demand, Himeko couldn't help but feel happy to be asked to have lunch by a group of normal girls her age. Of course, she could always get information out of them for the mission, but that wasn't the first thing that popped in her head when she agreed to go with them. In fact, it made her genuinely ecstatic.

"You're such a creep. Stop scaring her off, Mina!" Hasumi literally had to drag her friend away and out of the classroom.

Vivian looked slightly dumbfounded at her friends' interactions, but nonetheless, she picked up Anastasia's belongings and followed them out. "Well, see ya after lunch."

 _"Well, that was interesting..."_ Himeko thought to herself as she waved and watched the trio exit the room. But she looked back as she felt the presence of another person standing behind her, and was greeted by a young boy with neat, dirty blond hair and green eyes standing there. To Himeko, he was above average looking, which actually translates into him being quite good looking considering the fact that she doesn't have eyes for anyone but Kurapika. But instead of the normal navy coloured school jumpers, he was wearing one that was red in colour.

"This is the form for the student council. Fill it out and give it back to me after lunch." With a no-nonsense attitude, he handed her a couple of documents before walking straight out of the class.

"Hey Luca, join us for lunch today!" One of the more social looking boys called out from the back of the room, where him and some others have gathered around Gon in a massive circle.

"No, thanks." After giving them a firm answer, Luca left.

"Not a social butterfly, is he?" Killua approached her, his hands in his trouser pockets, after witnessing their interactions. His eyes were still watching the boy walk down the corridor. "To think even normal kids have that kind of attitude. Kinda gives you a Kurapika vibe, doesn't he?"

"Hey, take that back! Just because he has blond hair doesn't make him anything like Kurapika," Himeko angrily retorted, jabbing her elbow into the boy's sides without prior warning.

"Ouch..." Killua curled over in pain, before making a very quick recovery in an attempt to save himself by changing the subject. He turned the conversation to their friend, who was the life of a party. "Looks like Gon really fits in."

After staring at the raven-haired boy for what seemed like almost a minute, the pair dramatically covered their eyes as if to protect them. "Too bright!" Himeko groaned.

Killua seemed to find it amusing and joined the theatric performance, "Oh, mighty _Enhancer_ , please have mercy against us mortal _Transmuters_!"

"Kurapika still isn't anything like that Luca kid!" Himeko broke character, by bringing up their previous topic and giving him a sour glare, pursing her lips. "Watch it next time!"

"Yeah, yeah, let's stop Gon before he talks away our whole lunch break." Killua moved along back to his and Gon's seating area, with a slightly unhappy and complaining Himeko tagging on right behind him. "Gon, lets go eat!"

"Guys, meet my new friends!" Gon beamed, completely ignoring his best friend's hungry plea. There was a small group of boys and girls gathered around him, and as this class was quite small in number, it could be considered around half of the class.

The girl standing closest to Gon, a petite redhead who's lose, long curls elegantly draped down her shoulders. She smiled at them with her blue eyes, before doing a curtsy whilst holding her school uniform skirt, that was tailored slightly longer than that of every other girl. "How do you do, I'm Terra Trouvaille. I'm delighted to make your acquaintance."

Not knowing how to respond to that out-worldly greeting, the pair of transmuters stood frozen, waiting for the other to go first. "Yeah, nice to meet you... I'm Kou." Himeko was the first to break the long silence and make a self-introduction. "This idiot next to me is Killua."

That instance, another redhead, one with green eyes and freckles adorning her rosy cheeks grabbed Terra close to her by the shoulders. "You might have to get used to this one, she has a couple of lose screws."

"I do not have any lose screws!" Terra's attitude turned 180 degrees as she protested in a voice that was anything but proper. After the girl realised what she had just done, she saw a pair of eyes look at her doubtfully. She turned to Gon who was standing next to him still smiling, not having flinched a little.

"I think she's a nice person," Gon beamed back at her, with his one million watts smile. Terra cleared her throat, ran her fingers through her hair to tidy them and flashed him a tiny, ladylike smile in return before thanking him. The pairs interaction seemed alien to the rest of the group, while Killua and Himeko felt a little sense of deja-vu from somewhere.

"Don't mind him, he's always been a little strange." Killua commented, trying to make a point that Gon was nice to pretty much everyone.

"Not at all, clueless is the new cute after all!" The freckled redhead said, before going on to introduce herself to the newcomers. "The name's Soraya, pleased to meet'cha."

Emerging from behind her was a boy with raven hair that had been carefully yet tastefully styled, with red eyes and a mole underneath one. Over his school uniform he wore a black leather jacket, which he probably knew was against the dress code but wore regardless.

"Well, not sure about him but I'm actually into cuties with black hair." He took out his phone from his pocket at lightening speed, and approached Himeko who just thought the day couldn't get any weirder. "I seem to have lost my number, so may I have yours instead?"

Realising that the day did just get much weirder, Himeko took a small step back wondering whether a sixteen year old had really used an outdated pick-up line on her. "No, but Killua here can help you find your own number."

"Man, you just got burned. Want me to take you to the nurses office?" Another girl tried her best to form coherent sentences in response to Himeko's rejection. She was slightly on the chubbier side, with shoulder length messy hair that looked difficult to tame, and her brown eyes were starting to fill with tears as she continued to laugh. As soon as she managed to catch her breath, she proceeded to introduce herself. "I'm Aster Yin. Feel free to ask me for notes on stuff you missed, I'll lend them to you."

"Getting rejected by a pretty girl is nothing to cry over. If anything, a girl knowing what she wants and doesn't want is hot." The leather clad boy announced to his peers, before focusing his passionate fiery eyes back at our heroine. "The name's Nathan. Let me know if you change your mind, my line is always open for you."

Next to him stood a much more composed boy, completely unfazed by his friend's flirting, not even displaying signs of second hand embarrassment. A lavishly handsome boy, his face framed by sandy blond hair and pale blue eyes that stood out against his pale white skin. He stared at the newcomers, before tugging Nathan and dragging him out of the class with him.

"Looks like you and Gon and pretty popular," Killua whispered in her ear, teasing her whilst trying to control his laughter. But instead of replying with her usual retort, Himeko pressed her lips together in thought as she stared at the two boys walking out.

"Killua," she interrupted his small giggle fest in a much more serious tone, and he immediately stopped hearing her unexpected voice. "One of those two boys that just walked out, I mean the blond one. He was in one of the photographs Kurapika showed us. That's Arnaude Hale."

Killua looked up and joined her as they continued to watch the back of the boy, "Oh, him? Yeah, I've noticed during class. I guess sitting right at the back is convenient when you want to observe everyone."

"We should tell the others when we see them. Gon let's go!"

Meanwhile, in the larger of the two food halls, the strawberry blond member of the infiltration team was sat alone on one of the numerous tables. Wearing a hoodie, and a pair of sweatpants that seem to double as a pair of pyjama bottoms, Natsume scrolled through the messages on his phone as he lazily ran through his messy bed-hair. His eyes then looked up, scanning the area for the rest of the team.

"Did you just wake up?" Toshiro questioned, judgmentally raising one of his brows at him. "Dude, you don't even look like you've brushed your teeth yet. It's past one already."

"I didn't have class today, so what's the point of waking up early. Not like I have a dojo to clean."

"Don't complain later on when your bad habits catch up to you."

Interrupting the two young men, a young female in her late teens spoke up. "Toshiro, I'm going to head up to the library and get some textbooks before they're all gone. See you in class tomorrow." She then turned to Natsume and also gave him a warm smile before heading back out of the cafeteria.

"Yo, who's that?" Natsume asked, genuinely interested in his friend's response.

"A girl from my course, she sat next to me in today's lecture." Toshiro answered, as he lowered himself onto one of the low stools in front of the large white table. "Her name's Aria."

"Didn't know you were capable of making female friends."

"Unlike you I don't flirt with everything that walks on two legs."

"I have higher standards than just two legs."

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. Didn't have any morning classes, so I checked out the library. I photocopied some relevant pages to study from later on." Noticing another new male behind him, Toshiro and Natsume turned to look over Leorio's shoulder to take a good look at the fairly tall, tanned male with dark brown hair looking back at them.

"Hi, I'm Valentino. I'm Leorio's roommate." The young man introduced himself, before turning back to his roommate. "I'm going to grab some lunch. See you later." The two fist-bumped as if they've been friends for decades before parting ways.

"Why am I the only one without a friend yet?" Seeing how everyone has bonded with someone at the academy already, Natsume sounded dejected. "Even Leorio and Toshi have friends, does that mean I'm a bigger loser than them?"

Just as the two said losers were about to interject, the fourth member of the team arrived, carrying a few containers of iced drinks with him. Kurapika quietly took a seat, placing the clear plastic cups on the table. Unlike the previous two members who have arrived to the cafeteria with a peer, he came alone.

 _"I stand corrected. Kurapika will always be lonelier than me."_

"I guess we are just waiting for the kids now," Leorio brought up, seeing as everyone else has already arrived.

"That can't be helped, their timetables are packed." Kurapika replied cooly. "We have a lot more time doing university courses, although that time is supposed to be used for self study. Needless to say, I hope you are all planning on keeping up with you're studies." Hearing Kurapika's serious tone, the remaining three men couldn't help but wish for the high schoolers to arrive. Just on cue, a young feminine voice brightened up the dull atmosphere caused by Kurapika.

"Sorry we're late guys!" Leorio, Toshiro and Natsume turned their heads towards the source of the voice, looking up with glistening eyes as if they've seen an angel on earth. "Our resident casanova was busy chatting up the girls in our class."

"I was doing no such thing!" Gon retorted, trying to defend himself as not even Killua was on his side.

"In your class?" Toshiro questioned, as he passed along all the drinks. "What was Gon doing in your class? Did they put him in a lower class or something?"

Somewhat offended by Toshiro's nonchalant comment, Gon's began to grind his teeth and chew on the straw. Killua patted him on his back, whilst trying to hold in his laughter, earning himself a glare from his friend.

"Kou's been put in Gon's class," Kurapika answered instead of the girl in question. "They were going to bump her two year groups up, but she settled for one year."

"Holy! But then again it's could we're talking about. But wait, why is Kurapika the only one who knows about it?" Leorio asked, slightly suspicious.

"Because he's the only one I told. Didn't feel like telling the rest of you." She answered, leaving three of the young men, except for Kurapika flabbergasted. "That's besides the point! That guy is in our class. The guy who was in one of the photos you showed us."

Killua place his hand on her shoulder, telling her to calm down. He then continued explaining from there, "she means Hale. We interacted with him today."

"You mean Arnaude Hale?" Leorio questioned in a quiet whisper. "That's a good start. Try interacting with him a bit more, you might be able to get something out of him if you try."

"That's easier said than done," Killua sighed, remembering the short encounter they had with the boy. The handful of people him, Gon and Himeko managed to talk to were the more talkative crowd. There was another handful of students in their class that kept to themselves or looked much harder to approach. Although the boy in question was friends with other students in the class, there was something about him that seemed closed-off.

"I don't think it's a big deal!" Gon pointed out, now having finished his drink. "He didn't look like a bad person. No one in our class seemed bad, so I want to get along with them."

"I guess the two no good _Transmuters_ will be fine with Gon around," Natsume stated, pointing to his track record of bonding with pretty much anyone he sets his eyes on.

Kurapika silently listened to the conversation of everyone's first days. Natsume hasn't had any classes yet, but he managed to talk to people in the _Conjurer_ dormitory. Toshiro and Leorio are in the more popular classes, and while Leorio does do better in terms of talking to people, Toshiro has been successful in trying to talk to small groups of girls in his class. Kurapika's class was formed of under ten people, so he can't cover much ground.

"Gon, continue making acquaintances in your class and in your dormitory. Killua, since you don't want to join the student council I want you to help Gon but also focus on the _Transmuter's_ dormitory. Kou, I want you to go ahead as we discussed and join the student council. It would also be useful if you manage to talk to some girls as you're the only girl among us." After giving it some thought, Kurapika began to give out orders. "Leorio and Toshiro, I want you two to continue focusing on the people in your respective courses, and Natsu, continue talking to the people in our dormitory. I'll be joining the student council as well. Hopefully they'll have some more information."

While everyone looked like their souls have left their bodies after hearing Kurapika bark up more orders, only one person looked overjoyed in this situation. _"Kurapika and I are going to be in the student council together! We are going to have some alone time!"_ Well, she was right in one way, but couldn't be more wrong.

"Also, I hope none of you are planning on slacking off on your studies." The blond continued to nag like the group's helicopter parent. "The college courses are nothing to laugh at, so I hope to see you three at the university library when you have no lectures. Gon, your entrance exam grades were terrible. You were only accepted because your physical exam saved your average, but for that you went slightly overboard. Killua, your marks were average but make sure to keep up with your studies." Kurapika then turned to the sole female member of the group. "Kou, just keep doing what you're doing. Help Gon and Killua when you get time to."

Amongst the intensity of his long lecture, a hand was raised timidly in the air. "Um, Kurapika," Gon spoke quietly. "Can we eat now? I'm hungry."

After lunch, the team parted ways and the high school trio returned to their classroom, somewhat drained after having to deal with Kurapika's overbearingness. His heads still somewhere in the clouds, Gon walked into a girl whilst entering his classroom. Upon feeling the impact, he quickly snapped out of it and looked down at whom he bumped into.

The thin, petite girl standing in front of him covered her face with her hands, so he couldn't see anything but her straight fiery hair. Not knowing how the girl was feeling, Gon broke out into a frenzy and went out of his way to check up on her.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going. I can take you to the medical office if you're hurt." He gently tried to pry her small hands away from her face, wanting to see if she had hurt herself, or if she was crying. She looked more surprised than hurt and backed away. Seeing this, a male student in the class rushed to the scene. Instead of the bright red hair the girl had, his was jet back and cut short. However, the pair shared the same, grey eyes.

"Hey, don't touch her!" The youngster wedged in between them, and the scene somewhat reminded them of a mother cat protecting it's kitten from danger. He turned around and double checked whether the girl was fine, before turning back around to glare at Gon. "Don't you use your fucking eyes?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into her."

"Hey, he said he's sorry. Don't make a big fuss out of it!" Killua issued a stern warning, seeing how his friend's softer tone wasn't getting through to him.

"Allen, it's okay. He didn't do it on purpose. I wasn't paying attention either, so it's partly my fault." The soft voice behind Allen made him hold his tongue, and he began to relax his tensed shoulders.

He retreated after saying, "just watch where you're going next time."

"What a prick!" Killua muttered under his breath, watching him walk off.

The girl sitting at the desk closest to the door continued to watch their expressions through her hazel eyes. "Don't mind them, Allen's a good guy once you get to know him. Alice is a little shy, so he watches out for her. He doesn't know what you guys are like yet, so he made a fuss about it. They're fraternal twins if you were wondering." The trio looked back at the average built girl, who had thick brown hair and pale skin. "I'm Amanda by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Amanda. I'm Gon!" Following the small unexpected incident, Gon has no trouble making a full recovering and starting a conversation with his new classmate. Although she was quiet at first, the more she talked to Gon, the more comfortable and talkative she got. Meanwhile, the two _Transmuters_ stood quietly at the back.

"Don't pull that face, you're going to scare everyone off." Himeko gave him a hefty pat on his back. "I doubt he's a bad guy and besides, you'd do the same if Alluka were involved. Oh look, I gave you two something to bond over."

"Not funny."

"Class is starting, would you all mind going back to your seats?" From the door of the classroom a vexed voice addressed the whole class. "I'll give you all a minute to settle down and get ready for class." The teacher, a tall, well-built man in his late thirties walked to the front desk to take out the materials for his lesson. The frown on his face was visible to the whole class, and everyone immediately knew that he was in a foul mood.

"Word of warning," Soraya, who was sat right next to Killua whispered, so him and Gon could hear. "That's Williams, our maths teacher, and he's as foul as his expression. Don't get on his bad side."

Hearing this, Aster who was sat beside her joined in on giving the newcomers a word of advice. "Apparently he was a Blacklist Hunter before joining the academy as a teacher. He used to catch all kinds of criminals back in the day." Aster continued to lean in a little closer, so she could lower her voice more. "Have you guys heard of the Zoldyck assassins? They're a family of assassins that no one's seen before. Rumours say he spent years going after the Zoldycks back then, and he has all kinds of info on them. You know, where there's smoke there's fire."

"We'll be careful." Gon reassured his seat neighbours, noticing Killua's bemused yet mocking expression. A mere math teacher wasn't a close enough match against one of his family members.

In less than a minute, the teacher managed to quieten the class. As he wrote on the whiteboard, the subtle squeaking of the board marker against the board echoed through the room until he completed writing an equation on the board.

"We'll pick up from where we left off last time." He faced his students and scanned through the class, looking for a victim to pick on. "You, with the white hair. Get up."

Upon hearing that voice, two members of the class stood up. Killua being one, and the other being a small girl with long, straight white hair.

"Not you Vermillion. Sit back down." Despite his cold voice, the young girl, Shirou Vermillion, sat back down in her seat looking unfazed.

Looking straight at Killua, who was not left standing, he continued as if he was interrogating him. "What's your name?"

Killua looked unaffected, looking Williams straight back into his eyes. "I'm Killua Silva, Sir." Williams was quite an intimidating man, having a history of dealing with criminals in the past instead of students. His students didn't like him, and very rarely did a student answer him back so calmly. His classes were so intense, they could very well pass for an interrogation session.

"Silva, solve the question on the board."

Killua glanced at the board, and he didn't recognise this type of question having been in the entrance exam paper. He didn't need to learn it, and Himeko never taught it as they only had a week to prepare. He was someone who knew his strengths, but at the same time wasn't afraid to accept his weaknesses.

"I don't know how to solve it, I haven't learnt how to solve that kind of equation yet." His voice wasn't cocky, in fact, it was far from it. He was composed, but not insulting. Therefore, he wasn't sure why this became such a big deal.

Williams let out a annoyed sigh, letting the whole class know irritated he already was. "What's the point of turning up to my lessons if you're just going to sit around?"

"I'm hoping that your lesson today will teach me how to solve that equation. I'm not here to sit around."

"Sit back down. Vermillion, solve the question on the board."

Another fifty minute of maths class made Gon, Killua and Himeko wonder how everyone put up with this teacher. But eventually classes were over, and everyone headed back to their dorms.

"I can't believe the nerve of that guy!" Himeko exclaimed in anger, as the trio made their way back.

"Right, it made me so angry. Killua didn't do anything wrong." Just like his friend, Gon was fuming too at the injustice that happened in their last class of the day.

"Whatever, it's no big deal."

"Doesn't it bother you, Killua?"

"No, something like that won't bother me." He answered, before looking back at his friends. "That being said, if something like that happens to me in class, be good and don't say anything. I'll handle it myself, I don't want you guys to get involved."

"That's not fair!" Gon protested, which Killua expected. He wasn't surprised to have his friends look at him with dejected eyes.

"Don't give me those faces. You think I won't be able to handle a maths teachers? Who do you think I am?"

"We call him the drill sergeant." A fourth voice managed to sneak into their conversation. Terra joined the small circle, as if she had somehow magically summoned herself into it. "Can I walk back with you Gon?"

Before Killua could say no, Gon covered his mouth and answered. "Sure you're an _Emitter_ , right? Our dorms are right next to each other." Overjoyed by his answer, Terra joined Gon's side as they walked back to their respective dormitories. Eventually, the one group split into two smaller groups as the two _Transmuters_ went separate ways and saw Gon and his potential love interest off.

"One day in and a girl has already attached herself to him," Killua groaned, slightly displeased at the sight.

"I think she's cute," Himeko added her own opinion. "She kind of reminds me of Palm, so I feel like I can get along with her."

"Comparing her to Palm doesn't make it any better."

...

The next morning, Himeko woke up to the sound of her alarm and quietly snuck into the bathroom while trying not to wake up her roommate. After washing her face, she got herself ready to go on a quick job before her first class as she still had a lot of time left before her first class. However, even though she was trying her best to be extremely quiet, she heard shuffling coming from Theodora's bed. Just as she grabbed her phone and earphones from her bedside table, she heard her roommate's voice call out to her. But her voice was slightly off.

"Himeko," Theodora was now sitting up on her bed and looking at her, not looking sleepy at all. Himeko furrowed her brows as she heard her name being called. She hadn't introduced herself to anyone as Himeko at the academy as she chose to go by Kou instead. So, how did the older girl know something she wasn't supposed to.

She stood up, and Himeko just watched as she continued to walk closer, stopping right in front of her. Theodora gently cupped her cheeks, and as she continued to gaze at the younger girl, her eyes slowly filled with tears.

"My little Himeko has grown so much, I almost didn't recognise you." Theodora's voice sounded lower, and more mature, as if it belonged to an older woman. Himeko was suddenly hit with realisation, and although a large part of her wanted to doubt the conclusion she came to, deep inside she knew she was right.

"Mother?"

* * *

 **A/n:** Call me the queen of cliffhangers because I be hanging you guys on cliffs all the time. Will this be a "Luke, I am your father" moment? Ok, ignore me I'm stupid lol.

Finally I didn't take over a year to update. Speaking of updates, I have a quick question for you guys. Would you guys want more frequent updates, but with shorter chapters (so around 2,500-3,000 words) or would you like less frequent chapters with longer chapters like my usual chapters (so 5,000-6,000 words)? I do want to give you guys more quality chapters, that's why I release massive chunks so there's some action in every chapter, but if you want to try something new then I'm open for that.

Also, I tried to use all of your OC's at least once this chapter, but don't worry, they'll be appearing more during this arc. I hope I kept them all in character and did them justice, and if not please feel free to correct me and I can change the way I portray them.

 **Review Corner:**

 **SilverDewDrop:** Thanks for leaving a review every chapter, I literally look forward to hearing from you every time :) I more than just the gang in this chapter, so character overload! Also, I'll try my best to upload more frequently!

 **Misaka Phenex:** Thanks for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter :)

 **Raghda Mohamed:** Big congrats for catching up with all those chapters and making it here. I welcome you to the sequel lol. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will work hard to try and release more frequent chapters.

As for the ages of the characters:

Himeko: 15 (turns 16 at the end of the year)  
Killua and Gon: Already turned 16  
Kurapika and Natsume: 20/21  
Leorio and Toshiro: 23  
Haruko: 26  
Hakuryuu (Himeko's brother): 23 (8 years older than Himeko)  
Himeko and the trio's sensei: Hunter x Hime's biggest mystery (even I don't know how old he is)


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